The Ismailis of Najran

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I. Summary and Recommendations

The Ismailis, a religious and ethnic minority with historic
roots in Najran province of southwestern Saudi Arabia, face increasing threats
to their identity as a result of official discrimination. With the arrival of
Prince Mish'al bin Sa'ud as the governor of Najran in 1996, tension between
local authorities and the Ismaili population increased, culminating in a
confrontation between armed Ismaili demonstrators and police and army units
outside the Holiday Inn hotel in Najran city in April 2000. The ensuing
crackdown continues to reverberate throughout the region to this day.

Official discrimination in Saudi Arabia against Ismailis
encompasses government employment, religious practices, and the justice system.
Government officials exclude Ismailis from decision making, and publicly
disparage their faith. Following the clashes in April 2000, Saudi authorities
imprisoned, tortured, and summarily sentenced hundreds of Ismailis, and
transferred hundreds of Ismaili government employees outside the region.
Underlying discriminatory practices have continued unabated.

This report calls for the end to religious and ethnic
discrimination against the Ismailis of Saudi Arabia, and accountability for the
abuses Ismailis suffered following the clashes of 2000. Over the past 10 years,
Ismailis have repeatedly sent delegations and addressed petitions to the
governor of Najran and the central authorities in Riyadh, including the Human
Rights Commission (an official body), but found little attention to their concerns.

Najran is a fertile valley on the border with Yemen, and came under Saudi rule in 1934. It is the spiritual seat of the Sulaimani
Ismailis, a branch of Shiism numbering several hundred thousand adherents.
Saudi intolerance toward religious minorities in the country historically did
not intrude much into the daily lives of Ismailis from Najran unless they left
the region to perform a pilgrimage to Mekka or Medina or to pursue studies and
careers in other cities. Over the past dozen years, however, the situation has
worsened. First, officials publicly disparage Ismailis and exclude them from
participating in local decisions. Second, Ismailis are excluded from distinct
areas of employment and promotion to upper ranks. Third, Ismailis face severe
curtailments of their religious freedom. Fourth, in a religiously-legitimized
justice system in which heterodox non-Wahhabi practices have no place, Ismailis
face arrest without cause and harsher sentences than other Saudis.

The confrontation at the Holiday Inn in Najran city on April 23, 2000, marked a watershed in Ismaili relations with the central government. Three
months earlier, police had closed all Ismaili mosques on a religious holiday.
On April 23, after security forces and religious morality police arrested an
Ismaili cleric, a large demonstration took place outside the Holiday Inn, where
Governor Prince Mish'al resided. After the governor refused for hours to meet
the petitioners, an exchange of fire between security forces and armed
demonstrators left two Ismailis dead and, according to some government
accounts, killed one policeman as well. Believing their religious identity to
be under attack, Ismaili men erected defenses around Khushaiwa, the seat of the
Ismaili religious leader, al-Da'i al-Mutlaq(Absolute Guide),
and the spiritual capital of Sulaimani Ismailis, a community with followers in
India and Pakistan as well as Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Khushaiwa, which is an
area of Najran city, includes the Mansura mosque complex. The army surrounded
the Ismaili positions and placed the city under its control. The standoff ended
later the same day without further bloodshed.

Over the following weeks, security forces detained several
hundred Ismaili men, who claim that local intelligence officers (mabahith)
tortured them. The authorities tried more than 90 of the men in secret in Riyadh. Despite successive royal pardons for these men convicted for participation in the
Holiday Inn events, reducing their sentences, 17 Ismailis remained in prison in
mid-2008 on the basis of convictions stemming from those events. In addition,
local authorities forced several hundred Ismaili government officials in the
wake of the Holiday Inn incident to relocate to jobs outside the region or
resign. Only a handful have been able to return.

As recently as 2006 and 2007, the highest
government-appointed clerics and judicial authorities of Saudi Arabia publicly attacked the Ismaili faith, declaring its adherents to be infidels. In 2005
the governor of Najran disparaged Ismailis in a newspaper interview, referring
to their mosques as temples. These attacks occurred in a context of frequent
hate speech by officials or prominent personalities against the Shia in
general, who constitute around 10 to 15 percent of Saudi Arabia's population.

Faced with official hostility, it is no surprise that
Ismailis are not able to participate in local decisions by holding high office
in the governorate. The five-year-old National Dialogue established at the
behest of then Crown-prince Abdullah to promote conciliation on controversial
and sensitive topics invited only a few Ismailis to participate. In 2006 one of
those participants was fired from her job after delivering remarks highly
critical of Wahhabi authorities in Najran. Ismailis who protest publicly, write
petitions, or speak to the media risk arrest and periods in prison.

Ismailis have faced increased discrimination in employment
over the past decade. As elsewhere in Saudi Arabia, in Najran the government is
a major employer, but many Ismailis cannot obtain professional jobs and have
been forced to leave Najran because the administration has filled government
positions with Sunnis from outside the province who are sometimes less
qualified. Ismaili officials also face a glass ceiling on promotions.
Currently, only one out of 35 department heads in Najran is an Ismaili. While
there are Ismailis in the military, Ismailis only exceptionally rise to the
higher ranks, because officer colleges preparing cadets for leadership
positions rarely admit qualified Ismailis.

Religious restrictions are the most severe form of
discrimination that Ismailis confront. Ismailis may not visit their religious
leader to receive instruction. They face restrictions when they attempt to
build mosques or expand existing ones, while Wahhabi mosques flourish, with
state aid. Ismailis may not print or publish Ismaili prayer books. In
government schools, where religion can constitute a third of the curriculum,
Ismaili children are ridiculed for their faith and indoctrinated in Wahhabi
thought.

In the justice system, Ismailis have faced adverse judicial
rulings due to their religious identity. One judge barred an Ismaili lawyer
from representing a Sunni client in court. Another judge forcibly divorced a
Sunni woman from her Ismaili husband, declaring him religiously "inadequate." Ismailis face imprisonment on
sorcery charges on account of their religious practices. In other cases,
seemingly minor incidents have landed Ismailis on death row. Once in prison,
Ismailis often do not benefit as their fellow Sunni prisoners do from
reductions of their sentence for memorizing the Quran or furlough for family
weddings or funerals.

A major Ismaili grievance, which this report does not
address for lack of comparative data, is the claim that Saudi authorities are
threatening the demographic majority of Ismailis in Najran by naturalizing
Yemeni refugees who share the Saudi-majority Sunni faith and giving Yemeni
newcomers land plots, employment, and housing while Ismailis receive no such assistance.

Recommendations to the
Saudi Government

Human Rights Watch urges the Saudi government to provide
mechanisms for accountability for the Holiday Inn events of April 2000 and
their aftermath. Human Rights Watch also urges measures be taken to address
and bring to an end discrimination against Ismailis that limits their
participation in public affairs, employment and promotion, religious freedom,
and access to fair justice.

With respect to the Holiday Inn events of April
2000 the government should:

Open an inquiry with subpoena powers under the aegis of
the Human Rights Commission and with at least half of the members Saudi
Ismailis, to invite public participation, and make its findings public,
regarding

The closure of Ismaili mosques on Eid al-Fitr ([10/ 1/
1420] December 1999);

The arrest of Ismaili cleric Muhammad al-Khayyat;

The failed attempts at dialogue between Ismaili leaders
and Governor Prince Mish'al on April 23, 2000;

The use of firearms by security forces and by Ismailis at
the Holiday Inn hotel that day;

The large-scale arrests of Ismailis following the Holiday
Inn events;

The treatment of Ismailis in custody, in particular at
the Najran mabahith offices, the Najran General Prison, and at al-Ha'ir
mabahith prison in Riyadh;

The fairness of the trials of Ismailis prosecuted and
convicted in connection with the Holiday Inn events; and

The reasons for transferring Ismaili public sector
employees to locales outside the Najran region, firing others from their
jobs, and barring Ismaili students from resuming their studies upon
release from prison.

Open criminal investigations against mabahith officers and
local governorate officials where evidence indicates that they carried
out, ordered, or condoned arbitrary arrests and/or torture.

Open disciplinary hearings against prosecutors who pursued
prosecutions without evidence against Ismailis, and against judges who
blatantly violated Ismaili detainees' rights to a prompt, fair, and public
trial.

With respect to ongoing discrimination against Ismailis
of Najran, the government should:

Publicly and officially rebut hate speech against Ismailis
and other religious or ethnic minorities.

Discipline and where warranted prosecute officials who
disparage Ismailis or promote discrimination against and incite hatred of
Ismailis.

Set up a national institution, as recommended by the
United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,
empowered to receive claims of discrimination, to make public
recommendations for remedy, and to review and recommend changes in
official and private discriminatory policies and practices.[1]

Ensure that Ismailis can participate in national and local
public affairs and policy initiatives by appointing a representative
number of qualified Ismailis to public sector jobs and high government
offices in the Najran region.

Ensure that qualified Ismailis receive at least equal
treatment in education and local employment and business opportunities.

Terminate all Ministry of Information and Ministry of Islamic Affairs censorship regarding the possession, production, and exchange of
Ismaili or Shia religious material.

Pass legislation that protects from government
interference construction of buildings for worship or other Ismaili
religious purposes, teaching and learning of Ismaili religious beliefs and
practices, and Ismaili worship and religious observance.

Allow Ismailis to train as judges and to practice in all
regular courts, with a preference for those courts in locations were the
Ismaili population constitutes a majority or sizeable minority.

Discipline or, as the case requires, prosecute officials
who judicially discriminate against Ismailis on the basis of their
religious identity in prosecutions, trials, sentencing or the execution of
verdicts, including prisoners' enjoyment of privileges such as furlough
and a reduction of sentence.

Methodology

Human Rights Watch conducted research for this report by
meeting with victims of discrimination and abuse of power in Saudi Arabia in
Riyadh in February 2006; in Riyadh, Najran, and Jeddah in December 2006; in
Riyadh in May 2007; and also in Manama, Bahrain, in July 2006. In addition, we
conducted telephone interviews and consulted court verdicts, land surveys, and
official documents provided by Ismailis.

This report addresses violations that are the result of
discrimination based on the religious and ethnic identity of Ismailis in
Najran. Other human rights violations against Ismailis, such as cases of
torture and unfair trials that did not appear to derive from religious discrimination,
are addressed in Human Rights Watch's
2008 report on Saudi Arabia's criminal justice system, Precarious Justice.[2]

In total, Human Rights Watch conducted over 150 interviews
with some 60 Ismailis. We spoke with eyewitnesses to the Holiday Inn events of
April 2000, and participated in two separate meetings with Ismaili tribal
leaders. We sought the opinions of lawyers and activists working on behalf of
Ismailis in their dealings with the local governorate and the authorities in Riyadh. Wherever possible, we spoke directly with victims of arbitrary arrest,
discrimination in education, employment, the justice system, and violations of
religious freedom. While the Ismailis we spoke to were often eager to tell
their story, a majority asked us to protect their identity. For a core group of
interviewees whose accounts encompassing arrest, torture, trial, and barriers
to the employment and education are featured across two chapters covering the
Holiday Inn events and their aftermath, we have used single-name pseudonyms;
other interviewees are presented anonymously. Some whom we could only interview
by phone preferred not to speak in great detail. Aside from the two meetings
with tribal leaders, we conducted interviews in private. All interviews were in
Arabic.

In May 2008 Human Rights Watch sent a detailed letter,
reproduced as the Appendix of this report, to Governor Prince Mish'al, seeking official information about events and policies described in this report. We did
not receive a reply to our letter and were thus unable to reflect an official
point of view.

This report sometimes refers to the hijri calendar,
officially in use in Saudi Arabia. It starts with the Prophet Muhammad's emigration from Mekka to Medina and is based on the lunar year, thus on average 11
days shorter than the Gregorian solar year. By the Gregorian calendar, Muslim
holidays fall on different dates each year.

II. Background

Source: University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin. July, 22, 2008

Najran is the seat of the religious leader of the Sulaimani
Ismailis, al-Da'i al-Mutlaq (Absolute Guide). Its status as such, with
some interruption, dates back to 1640.[3]
Ismailis had been living in Najran for over a millennium; they were one of many
strands of belief that existed in early Islam. Ismailis called themselves
Followers of the Truth (Ashab al-Haqq) and gathered adherents in many
parts of the realm of Islam in the ninth and tenth centuries Common Era (CE). A
split occurred around the turn of the tenth century, and most Ismailis
eventually recognized 'Ubaid Allah al-Mahdi, a man living in Syria, as their leader (imam). The Mahdi established the Fatimid dynasty (909–1171) in Egypt, founding the city of Cairo and its Azhar university. In the early 12th century
another split occurred, and Ismailis in Yemen, where they lived and frequently
fought with adherents of Zaidi Islam (another branch of Shia Islam that became
prevalent in Yemen), carried forward the beliefs and rule of the Fatimid
dynasty.[4]

Since their emergence, propagandists have depicted Ismailis
as heretics, based on invented stories that discredit their beliefs and their
claimed ancestry from the Prophet's family.[5]

Ismailis have their own system of law; scholars report few
modifications or modern adaptations since a series of legal treatises produced
by the Fatimid high judge Nu'man in the 11th century.[6]

Najran, a fertile valley in what is now southwestern Saudi
Arabia at the foot of mountains bordering the vast stretch of desert known as
the Empty Quarter, was traditionally home to Christian and Jewish communities,
in addition to Ismailis and Zaidis. Christians have been absent from Najran for
some centuries, and the remaining Jewish community is believed to have left in
1949, following the establishment of the state of Israel. Najran's Zaidi community today numbers
around 2,000.[7]

The 2004 Saudi census puts the number of inhabitants in
Najran at around 408,000.[8]
Ismailis, widely believed to constitute a large majority of the Najrani
population, share a homogeneous identity based on historical, cultural, and
religious roots. In Najran city, the Khushaiwa compound, with its Mansura mosque complex, is the spiritual capital of the Sulaimani branch of the Ismaili faith,
one of two major strands of contemporary Ismailism. Ismailis in Najran belong
mainly to one of two tribes-the Yam and the Hamadan. These tribes extend into
territory that today lies in Yemen. There are also some Sunnis of the Yam
tribe, both recent converts and adherents to Sunni Islam for generations.

The Saudis conquered first the independent princedom of the
Idrisis, in 'Asir region bordering Najran, in 1926, and then the Ismailis of
the Yam tribe in Najran in 1933.[9]
A brief war with Yemen over 'Asir concluded with a treaty in 1934 in which
Yemen ceded any claims to Najran, then a largely independent sheikhdom, to King
Abd al-'Aziz Al Sa'ud.[10]
Najran was the last territorial conquest of the reemergent Saudi state.[11]

The Ismaili sense of pervasive discrimination against them
appears stronger today than at any point in the first six decades of Saudi
rule. In the 1960s, Saudi authorities had held al-Da'i al-Mutlaq under
house arrest variously in Ta'if and Mekka for some five years because he had
demanded the independence of Ismaili mosques and religious teaching, which the
Wahhabi religious establishment opposed.[12] Despite this, many Ismailis have
relatively fond memories of Khalid al-Sudairy, who governed Najran from 1962 to
1980, and his son Fahd who succeeded him until 1996. Then, Prince Mish'al bin Sa'ud bin Abd al-'Aziz Al Sa'ud became the first member of the ruling family to
govern the region.

Discrimination against Ismailis in Saudi Arabia is part of a broader trend of discrimination against religious minorities in the
country, but has its own dynamic. King Abd al-'Aziz , also known as Ibn Sa'ud,
set out at the beginning of the 20th century to recapture Riyadh and reconquer other parts of the earlier Sa'ud kingdom. He relied on an alliance
between his family and the family (the Al al-Shaikh) and followers of Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab, the 18th-century missionary and religious scholar. The Al
al-Shaikh gave religious legitimacy to the Al Sa'ud as the political rulers,
who in turn pledged to uphold Islam.

To that end, Ibn Sa'ud enlisted in Najd the services of
experts on religious ritual, the mutawwa'in, or volunteers, putting them
in charge of indoctrinating the new tribal fighting force of the ikhwan
(brethren), which helped conquer the remaining lands that now comprise Saudi
Arabia, including Najran:[13]
The ikhwan forcibly converted conquered populations to their strict
interpretation of Islam, sometimes engaging in mass killings, such as in Ta'if
in 1924.[14]

Intolerance toward other interpretations of Islam remained a
feature of Saudi state policies, reflected in discriminatory employment, school
curricula, and public expenditures. Following the occupation of the Grand
Mosque in Mekka by Sunni millenarian extremists in 1979, and the Islamic
revolution in Iran at the same time, the Saudi state reacted with a renewed
focus on promoting Wahhabi thought.[15]

Iran's example led to increased political demands by the
Shia population of Saudi Arabia, who live mostly in the Eastern Province. The Saudi government responded with harsh repression, and many Shia fled. By 1993
Saudi Shia leaders in exile had concluded an understanding with the government
allowing them to return as long as they ceased their opposition to the
government and worked for change as "loyal subjects" within the kingdom. The
authorities, in turn, released Shia political prisoners, lifted travel bans,
and took minor steps to ease discrimination against Shia in the public sector
and in their religious worship.[16]
Especially in Ahsa', the southern part of the Eastern Province, however,
suppression of Shia freedom to practice their religion remains widespread.[17]

While Ismailis face discrimination similar to the Shia of
the Eastern Province in employment, religious freedom, and in the justice
system, they do not have the same political voice as their Shia brethren to the
east. They did not have an organized opposition outside Saudia Arabia or
influential coreligionists in a regionally powerful state like Iran, they are far fewer in numbers, and Najran has been more isolated from the outside world than
the Eastern Province. One Eastern Province Shia told Human Rights Watch in
2006, "The Ismailis of Najran are where we were 10 years ago."[18]

Largely ignored as a supposed backwater in the domestic
context of Saudi Arabia for many decades,[19] Najran in the late 1990s
attracted increased attention. Its proximity to Yemen and the unification of
the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) and the People's Democratic Republic of
Yemen (South Yemen) in 1990, followed by Saudi-Yemeni border negotiations in
1997, gave new impetus to address the fate of tens of thousands of South
Yemenis who had taken refuge in Najran. Ismailis vehemently object to the
preferred official solution of naturalizing and settling these Yemenis (who are
Sunni) in Najran, thereby altering the demographic make-up of the
majority-Ismaili region.

III. Relevant
International Standards

International law prohibits discrimination on the basis of
religion and protects the rights of religious and other minorities. The most
important international human rights treaties that spell out the meaning and
extent of these prohibitions and protections include the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD),[20] the
Convention against Discrimination in Education,[21] and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).[22] In addition, the United Nations
has passed declarations that articulate human rights standards and best practices
in matters of discrimination. These are the United Nations General Assembly
(UNGA) Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of
Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief (1981),[23] the UNGA
Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious
or Linguistic Minorities (1993),[24]
and the UNESCO Declaration on Race and Racial Prejudice (1978).[25]

Saudi Arabia acceded to the ICERD on October 23, 1997, the Convention against Discrimination in Education on August 17, 1973, and the CRC on February 25, 1996. It has submitted two reports to the UN Committee overseeing
the ICERD, a combined initial and second report in August 2001 and the third
report in February 2003. The first report, submitted four months after the
Holiday Inn events in Najran, made no mention of the Ismaili minority. When the
UN Committee responded to the report, it expressed concern "about reports that
persons of some racial or ethnic origins are unable to manifest their religious
beliefs."[26]

The Ismailis of Najran consider themselves to be a
religiously and ethnically distinct group in the kingdom. Their religious
homogeneity in particular marks them as a group in a way that the followers of
the Maliki religious school of thought in neighboring 'Asir province or the
Hijaz, for example, have not claimed. Ismaili elders identify themselves in
petitions to Saudi authorities by their tribe and geographical origin, and also
sometimes by religious identification. A January 2008 petition, for instance,
states that "Najran is known for its special characteristics of its religious
faith and the sensitivity of its followers to their treatment as a minority in
their original homeland."[27]
Saudi government officials occasionally refer to the people of Najran as
Ismailis; Prince Mish'al referred to then as such in remarking in 2005 "the
source of religious authority (marja'iyya) of our brothers the Ismailis
is in Najran, and the source of religious authority of our brothers the Zaidis
is in Najran."[28]
Ismailis as well as Saudi officials more frequently use religiously
non-specific terms like "people of Najran" in their official or public
discourse. This should be seen in the context of an intolerant Wahhabi
ideology that brooks no differences between Islam as defined by the thought of Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab, and other interpretations and practices of Islam.[29] One Ismaili told
Human Rights Watch, "There is no room to describe yourself as Ismaili, because
we don't really exist for them [the Wahhabis]."[30]

The ICERD defines racial discrimination as

any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based
on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or
effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an
equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political,
economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.[31]

The 1978 UNESCO declaration goes further in declaring "[a]ny
distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, ethnic
or national origin or religious intolerance motivated by racist considerations"
to be incompatible with human rights.[32]
The Convention against Discrimination in Education, in article 1, also includes
religious factors among prohibited discrimination. The UN Declaration on the
Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion
or Belief declares that "discrimination between human beings on the grounds of
religion or belief constitutes an affront to human dignity."[33]

The prohibition against discrimination applies to the
enjoyment of all fundamental rights, including the rights to development, work,
and access to justice. States are bound to guarantee equal access for everyone
to "[e]conomic, social and cultural rights, in particular: (i) The rights to
work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work,
to protection against unemployment, to equal pay for equal work, [and] to just
and favourable remuneration."[34]

Equally, law enforcement, and judicial officials must not
discriminate between persons on the basis of their ethnic origin, and the state
is bound to guarantee

(a) The right to equal treatment before the tribunals and
all other organs administering justice; (b) The right to security of person and
protection by the State against violence or bodily harm, whether inflicted by
government officials or by any individual group or institution.[35]

The prohibition against racist laws, policies, and acts
obliges states to take preventive and remedial action against racism. According
to the UNGA's 1993 declaration, states are obliged to protect minorities, such
as the Ismailis, by taking "measures to create favourable conditions to enable
persons belonging to minorities to express their characteristics and to develop
their culture, language, religion, traditions and customs."[36]

The 1993 declaration also says that states must protect the
identity of minorities "within their respective territories" by encouraging
"conditions for the promotion of that identity" and measures allowing minority
members to "participate fully in the economic progress and development in their
country."[37]
The Convention on the Rights of the Child specifically requires the education
of a child to be directed to the "development of … his or her own cultural
identity, language and values" and gives a child of a religious minority the
right "to enjoy his or her own culture, [and] to profess and practise his or
her own religion.[38]
The 1981 UNGA declaration states that, in education, a child "shall not be
compelled to receive teaching on religion or belief against the wishes of his
parents."[39]

In the 1981 UNGA declaration, the "freedom to have a
religion … and freedom … to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance,
practice and teaching" is protected, and "coercion which would impair [t]his
freedom" is prohibited.[40]
More specifically, assembly for worship, observance of religious holidays,
maintaining and erecting buildings for worship, acquiring items for use in
religious rituals, religious teaching and appointment of religious leaders,
fundraising for religion, and communication with coreligionists are activities
that fall within the protection of freedom of religion.[41]

The state's obligations go beyond not preventing religious
minorities from exercising their rights. The ICERD is clear that states must
not "undertake[] to sponsor, defend or support racial discrimination by any
persons or organizations," and states must "condemn all propaganda and all
organizations which are based on ideas or theories of superiority of one race
or group of persons of one colour or one ethnic origin."[42] The UNGA's
States must especially "not permit public authorities or public institutions,
national or local, to promote or incite racial discrimination," and prosecute
any individual who does so. Furthermore, states should "encourage, where
appropriate, integrationist multiracial organizations and movements," and
"establish and maintain appropriate charitable or humanitarian institutions."[43]

International law not only protects the identity of
minorities and prohibits discrimination but guarantees the rights of minorities
to actively participate in the public and cultural life of society, including
by "maintain[ing] their own associations.[44] Minorities have "the right to
participate effectively in decisions on the national and, where appropriate,
regional level concerning the minority."[45]

IV. The Clash and
Crackdown of April 2000

The security agencies protect [the Ismailis] … We reinforce
the security patrols so that they practice their beliefs in peace … They are
not second- or third-class citizens, but first class.

Background: The
Ministry of Interior plan to shut Ismaili mosques

In early 2000, in a clear provocation to the Ismaili
community and in violation of their right to religious freedom, Saudi
authorities devised and carried out a detailed plan to shut down Ismaili
mosques and arrest worshippers on the day that Ismails celebrate the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr.[47]

Sunni religious practice relies on the physical sighting of
the new moon to mark the start of Eid, so precise dates cannot be predicted
with certainty and depend on the locale where the moon sighting takes place. In
Ismai'li practice, however, Eid is calculated through a fixed calendar. If
there is a difference in the day of Eid between Ismailis and Wahhabi Sunnis,
the Ismaili day almost always comes earlier. Saudi Arabia allows only the Sunni
method of determining the Eid date. In 2000, Sunni Muslims expected to see the
new moon, and thus celebrate Eid, on January 4 at the earliest. Ismaili Eid
fell on January 3.

Official documents show that six weeks earlier, on November
22, 1999 (13/8/1420), Minister of Interior Prince Nayef ordered police to close
Ismaili mosques on January 3, 2000, and to "place guards and to arrest any
trespasser and to charge him."[48]
Four days before Ismaili Eid celebrations the Interior Ministry issued a
detailed and confidential security plan (a copy of which Human Rights Watch has
obtained) ordering the closure of 20 mosques in Najran city, naming the police
officials responsible for closing each mosque, and specifying the number of
police cars on standby. The plan did not state how to close mosques or how to
distinguish worshipers coming for daily prayers from those coming to celebrate
Eid. The plan also ordered police to close all Ismaili mosques outside Najran
city, with the help of "criminal security" officers provided with "tools from
the equipment and provisions branch" who would "intensify [their]
investigations," and five other officials who "possess weapons and explosives."
All members of the joint forces were to be at their posts by 5:30 a.m. on the
morning of the Ismaili Eid, and the "criminal forensics" department was ordered
to provide "experts in crime photography."[49]

Ismailis were outraged at this violation of their freedom to
worship, but the closures had been anticipated based on past experience, and
spiritual leaders had called on Ismails to stay at home, which most heeded.[50] A
handful of worshipers who went to the mosques on that day were arrested.[51]

Saudi Arabia has no written penal code specifying what
actions constitute criminal offenses. The authorities have sometimes treated as
a crime the celebration of non-Muslim religious holidays, as well as Muslim holidays that Wahhabis consider heretical, arresting participants. At other times, there
has been little or no official interference, such as during recent public celebrations
of Ashura by Shia in Qatif in the Eastern Province. Ismailis' Eid celebrations
are virtually identical to Sunnis'. Ismailis visit family and friends, share
communal meals and exchange gifts, and participate in communal prayers in
mosques.

Holiday Inn Events of April 23, 2000

Three months after the authorities closed Ismaili mosques on
the Ismaili day of Eid al-Fitr, strained relations between Ismaili Najranis and
the governor, Prince Mish'al, came to a head over the arrest of an Ismaili
cleric.

On April 23, 2000, officials from the local security police,
religious police, and criminal investigation department came to Khushaiwa. They
proceeded to arrest a cleric of Yemeni origin, Muhammad al-Khayyat, for what
the governor later claimed was "sorcery."[52] Students inside the
mosque protested when officials also began confiscating their religious books,
and they scuffled with the police. In the wake of this scuffle, one or more
shots were fired. Human Rights Watch has not been able to establish whether
officers or students who got hold of an officer's firearm fired the shot.
Accounts of injuries also vary, though there were no fatalities. According to
the government, a police officer was wounded. According to Ismaili sources, one
of the students was injured.[53]

One eyewitness told Ali Al Ahmed, a Saudi Shia opposition
activist in the United States, that "[t]he security [forces] came to the
[Mansura] mosque, and arrested al-Khayyat, and took about 40 books, some from
the hands of the students there. Then they asked for IDs and took them. Then
they heard a shot, and one of the security officers was hurt. A student tried
to take a gun from one of the security people, but didn't [manage]."[54]
Another person, not an eyewitness, told Human Rights Watch that persons present
during the arrests said that religious police, criminal investigation
department, and secret police officials entered the mosque, arrested
al-Khayyat, and then began confiscating the books of the students who were
present. When the students resisted, according to these accounts, an officer's
weapon was discharged, wounding one student.[55]

A group of Ismaili elders proceeded to the Holiday Inn,
which at the time served as Prince Mish'al's residence, to demand the release
of al-Khayyat. Prince Mish'al told the five leaders that he would not meet with
them.[56]
One participant in the demonstration told Human Rights Watch, "A crowd of up to
60 people, the head of each family, headed to the governor's residence to
submit a petition with demands, but the governor refused to meet with them.
Then they headed back to the hotel parking lot where the demonstrators were
gathering."[57]

Security forces on the scene included a special army unit
stationed in the vicinity of Najran. This unit had arrived on the scene with
armored personnel carriers (APCs) with mounted machine guns. One participant
described how, around sunset:

two men from the Saudi special security forces in civilian
clothing broke into the lines of the demonstrators and started to annoy the
crowd. The Ismaili demonstrators recognized them as strangers and both parties
started to exchange insults. One of the two policemen started shooting in the
air. A while thereafter the troops started to shoot in the direction of the
demonstrators [from behind the demonstrators]. Clashes intensified with the
security forces, leaving two dead.[58]

Ismailis, like other Saudis, typically have a pistol or a
rifle in their house or car. Another participant recalled what happened that
day:

I was about 24 years old then. I had a 25 mm pistol and my
dagger with me, and five bullets, but the pistol was not loaded. It was hidden.
I was in the open area next to the hotel, when a sound came from behind me.
There were five shots fired from what sounded like a rifle, then about five
seconds later, heavy fire came back from [the] direction of [the] hotel. I
cannot tell you what weapon it was.

I took refuge under a car, I saw one person bleeding from
the head. Blood was coming from his temple. I took him to the car and others
brought another wounded person to another car and we drove off to the
hospital-the driver, me, the other guy, and the two wounded.

The person I carried did not have a weapon, only a thob
[loose garment worn by men]. I was the first to go to him. After two days he
was in coma, and two weeks later he died.

We were there from after sundown prayer [until the
shooting] happened. They were shooting until I left for hospital, then I don't
know.[59]

Other accounts by non-Ismaili Saudi human rights activists
speak of Ismailis firing warning shots above or at the hotel, and that
government forces, by firing at or above the crowd from behind them, also fired
toward the hotel. Several Ismailis said that the demonstrators fired shots at
the hotel, where a government forensics team found shell casings. The
confrontation left one or two Ismailis dead, and one policeman is said to have
died. A Saudi human rights activist who investigated the incident told Human
Rights Watch that it was unclear who fired the first shot, but that some
Ismaili demonstrators had used their rifles and pistols to shoot at the hotel
while others were shooting in the air.[60]

When the shooting started just before or around sundown the
crowd dispersed but security forces arrested (by common account) 400 to 500
persons.[61]
Most of the demonstrators headed from the Holiday Inn to the Mansura mosque-in the words of some, to "defend" it from Saudi security forces who they feared
would raid and raze it.[62]
One "defender" told Human Rights Watch:

I was at al-Mansura, around 11 p.m. I had a Kalashnikov
loaded with one magazine with 30 bullets. I carried it on my back, the gun
barrel pointing up. I didn't take it off once. It is my personal one, I got it
from my father after he died. We all have guns in our cars and mine was in my
car so we all took our rifles. I was not at the hotel, but came to the Mansura mosque.
We stayed until Monday 1/ 19/ 1421 [April 24, 2000] afternoon. The army was in
Faisaliyah [district of Najran city] with tanks, and emergency cars [APCs] with
mounted 50 mm machine guns. We thought they would destroy our mosque.[63]

The "defenders" at al-Mansura mosque prepared booby traps
and petrol bombs. On the afternoon of April 24 the Ismaili religious leader (al-Da'i),Husain bin Ismaili al-Makrami, told the people to leave peacefully and go
home, which they did. Arrests of Ismailis, begun the previous night, continued.

Arrest Wave

The wave of arrests lasted several months. A local attempt
at accounting for all the detainees confirmed 412 Ismailis arrested and still
in custody by June 21, 2000,[64]
and later reports speak of around 600 persons arrested.[65] In at least one
case the security forces took a family member into custody as a means to
pressure wanted persons into giving themselves up.

An Ismaili man, "Badi" (not his real name), said that he
participated in the demonstration at the Holiday Inn and had spoken to the
media from there. The next day, the mabahith arrested him at his workplace, a
hospital:

They did not say what they came for. They told me, "We are
from mabahith, and we need you to come with us." I took out my mobile phone and
threw it to the other people who had come out of my office and asked them to
call my father, and I gave them the number.[66]

"Husain" recounted what happened during his arrest the night
of April 23-24:

They set up a checkpoint at the hotel, and arrested people.
If they found anything in a car, from a stick to a sharp weapon, pocket knives,
light weapons. They would thrust you into one of the APCs, and beat you with
rifle buts. I have a friend who was arrested that night and they put him in a
bag. He is disabled, he has a problem in one of his legs. They kicked him
inside the bag, insulted him-"You deviant," "You atheist"-until the [external]
intelligence came. He almost died among them. Similarly they pilloried everyone
whose look they didn't like … Many people were arrested, and most of them are
in al-Ha'ir prison.[67]

A group of students who had come to Najran when they heard
of the standoff in front of the hotel-"to comfort my family" in the words of
one-had their names registered at checkpoints as far as 200 km outside Najran.
Although they were not present at the Holiday Inn at the time of the incident,
security agents arrested them. "Kadhim," arrested on April 24, told Human
Rights Watch:

We came to the Mansura mosque in Khushaiwa, until the Da'i
told us to go home, around 3 p.m., then we went to the hotel to see what
happened and were arrested. They put us in a flat opposite the hotel, cuffed,
blindfolded, from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., without prayer or food or drink. There
were many people in the flat, kneeling, it was crowded. If you asked for water
they would beat you.[68]

Kadhim said he spent 18 days in Najran prison, where
intelligence officials questioned him about his role in the events. A "Riyadh
Committee" came to investigate, he said, "but there was nothing."[69]
Another of those arrested, "`Aqil," said, "A committee from the National Guard
[in Riyadh] came after one week and freed us after 18 days in prison. Sixty-five
others were also released."[70] In prison, Kadhim said,
the authorities split them up between different cell blocks where "soldiers
would kick and beat us for no reason."[71]

After their release they returned to their studies and some
three weeks later, during a break after examinations, they came back to Najran.
Kadhim told Human Rights Watch:

After seven or ten days … there was a phone call that dad
had been arrested from his shop. Two intelligence officers [mabahith] had
waited for him there and took him, neighbors said. Then shaiba [a
reverential term for their father] called from the mabahith and said they
wanted me to come. And my brother and I came on 3/3/1421 [June 6, 2000]. They blindfolded us and [arrested us.] My blindfold was removed but I was
still cuffed. I asked, "Did you release my dad?" The interrogator said, "No,
and we won't until you confess."[72]

(Kadhim's eventual confession under torture is described in
the next chapter.)

Another person who knew the case said that the father, upon
being released, had submitted documents to Riyadh to prove that his sons were
at university in a Saudi city hours from Najran at the time of the unrest
there. The father brought attendance sheets and other documents, this person
said, but the mabahith told him not to interfere.[73]

"Salih," who worked as an engineer, said he was not at the
Holiday Inn, but was at the Mansura mosque the next day with a Kalashnikov and
two unloaded magazines of ammunition. On June 2, police arrested him at work
for participation in the Holiday Inn events.[74]

Some arrests targeted Ismailis working in sensitive
government positions who had had no role in the events of April 23-24. "Hasan,"
a customs official working at the Saudi-Yemeni border told Human Rights Watch:

On 18/3/1421 [June 21, 2000], they arrested me at the border
… I wanted to call home but was not allowed, and they took me to the mabahith
office in cuffs and blindfolded. There was no interrogation. I was not at the
hotel events. Two days later, I was chained and taken to an ordinary plane to Riyadh with three mabahith officers. I was not allowed to speak. [In Riyadh's al-Ha'ir
prison] I was summoned for interrogation … for four days. [They showed me] 150
passport photos, asking if I knew any of these people. I knew about 25, and
gave their names.[75]

An Ismaili mabahith officer (a rarity) was told by his boss
several days after the hotel incident that he was not fulfilling his quota of
arrests. A relative told Human Rights Watch that this officer was himself
arrested because "it was time to arrest people on any charge, preferably
weapons possession." This interviewee commented:

After the events at the Holiday Inn, the mabahith were
ordered to bring [into custody] as many people as possible. It was not the
quality of the cases, but the quantity that counted. My [relative] still had
not brought anybody in a week or so after the events. He said there was just no
evidence that he could find to summon someone. So instead he was jailed by the
mabahith 10 days after the events. He spent eight-and-a-half months in the
mabahith prison simply for not rounding up enough suspects.[76]

"Karim," an Ismaili policeman, told Human Rights Watch that
when he reported to his station as usual for work on May 10, 2000, "the director called me. We talked normally, suddenly four mabahith officers came
from behind, blindfolded and tied me up. I did not take part in the hotel
incident. I had been a policemen for 15 years at that time."[77] His torture
during several days of ensuing detention is described below.

V. The Aftermath

Torture

Human Rights Watch has spoken in detail with 13 persons
arrested in the wake of the Holiday Inn events. Every one of the people we
spoke with had been detained by the mabahith and tortured.

Victims related various torture techniques including
beatings, electric shock, stress positions, and sleep deprivation. Almost all
considered sleep deprivation, lasting up to one week, to have been the most
painful experience.

Hasan, the customs official, told Human Rights Watch that he
and others were deprived of sleep for two days. "Every two hours, they would
ask us to kneel, then squat, then stand," he said. "Kneeling was hard because
of the foot chains pressing between the heels and my lower body."[78] Badi
gave this account:

As the mabahith arrested me, I said I am ready to answer
questions, but please don't beat me. [In the cell, t]hey put me face to the
wall and said, "Don't move." This was about 10 a.m. I stayed there until 5 p.m. I didn't have a watch, but heard the prayers. The guards paced up and down
and talked to the prisoners in a bad way: Dog! Donkey! Cow!

After a while an officer came and took me to the
interrogation room. [He said,] "Do you want to talk?" I said, "Of course,
that's why you asked me to come." There was only one question: "What's your
role in the events?" Then two military guys blindfolded me and started beating
me with their fists, on the neck, shoulders, and back. I said I would complain.

They put me back in the cell and forced me to stand again.
On the third day I began to bleed from my rectum. I had hemorrhoids at the
time, and said maybe it's them that started to bleed. On the third day I
decided to sit down when sleep overwhelmed me. But they would knock on the
metal doors when you moved or tried to sleep, making a terrible noise.[79]

Another man, "`Abbas," said that interrogators tied his legs
to a wooden pole then started beating him to make him confess, and, if he
didn't, subjected him to electric shock.[80]

According to Kadhim, the student, Ismaili leaders complained
to Crown Prince Abdullah about the arrests and torture, and about two months
after the events the crown prince directed the mabahith to stop the
interrogations.[81]
The led to a number of the arrested being freed, or transferred to regular
police detention, but did not mean the arrests stopped. An investigative team
was brought in from Riyadh. In early 2001 the security forces took a group of
up to 70 detainees to Riyadh and imprisoned them in al-Ha'ir mabahith prison,
where the interrogation and torture continued (most detainees were put first in
solitary confinement before being transferred to communal cells).[82] Some
of them were then presented in groups of 10, without notice or legal
representation, before a judge or panel of judges for secret trial at which all
were convicted (see below), and others appear to have been convicted without
even that formality.[83]

Prior to the court sessions, former detainees said,
interrogators in Riyadh tortured them to force them to sign confessions. Hasan
described to Human Rights Watch how he came to confess:

The torture started at 2:30 a.m. Every 30 minutes, a soldier
comes and knocks and says "cleansing time," then they come and cuff you,
blindfold you, and walk you to a different room. There, they chained one leg,
bent behind my body, they extended both arms as high as possible, with one foot
touching the ground. I had to hang like this for five to six hours. Then they
began to beat me with a stick and cables.
The torture began on my second day. This lasted about two months: interrogation
daily, daily beatings.

After one month they brought a witness, a Najrani I knew,
who said he saw me in the Mansura. I continued to deny this for one hour. Then
even the director came with a cable and beat me. He said all the others from
Najran have confessed. I confessed that I was at the Mansura with a
Kalashnikov. After that, I answered the interrogator's questions the way he
wanted for three days. I was forced to fingerprint the interrogation
[statement].[84]

Kadhim related a similar account of how interrogators
extracted his confession:

I was beaten with a stick used to whip animals. I was
deprived of sleep for more than 20 days and did not sleep. Thereafter, I could
only sit during sleep and prayer. My legs swelled terribly. There was no
doctor.
[My interrogator] said, "I know that you did not participate at the hotel, but
I need you to confess." He also insulted our religious leaders, the sayyids and
the Da'i, and said we were infidels. He wanted me to say that I fired in the
air. After 20 days, my psyche was destroyed; I said, "I'll give you what you
want." He filled in the answers for me. I said, "I want to sleep and then you
can have what you want." He said, "No, you have to answer now." So I confessed
that I shot in the air and set vehicles on fire.[85]

His interrogator then took him to a judge, at 1 a.m., to authenticate his confession, but he told the judge about the torture. The judge
told him not to write anything that he did not do, and went away. "I went back
to the mabahith," he continued.

I wrote another set of words. They made me stand for one
day. [My] interrogators the next day began to beat me, and filled in new
answers for me: Now, I and [another person] were supposed to have fired in the
air.[86]

"Ahmad" told a similar tale of torture:

The mabahith interrogated me in the general prison. From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. I was forced to stand up. This continued for one week. The interrogator said, "I've
been doing this for five years and every single one has confessed. Now, where's
the machine gun?" As he said that, I was put on the floor, chained, and with a
boot in my face. The officer said, "Why don't you confess?" I said, "To what?"
He said, "That you used your machine gun trying to kill the prince. We will get
witnesses-we will bring your mother and sister." At that, I lunged for him, but
did not hit him. They beat me with a stick and a kind of whip. He said,
"Confess that you fired five shots." I said, "No." "Confess that you had a
gun." I said, "Yes." He said, "Confess that you were not mistreated." I signed
with a fingerprint, and they took me back to the general prison. My next interrogator asked me, "How many times did you shoot?" I said, "No, I didn't shoot."
Finally I signed that I had fired five shots.[87]

Salih recounted his torture and interrogation:

I was at the mabahith 28 days. They poured cold water over
me, deprived me of sleep for two to three days, hung me by my wrists, bent my
arm behind my back. I was intimidated by hearing other people being beaten. I
confessed to being at the Mansura, but not at the hotel.[88]

Karim, the policeman, told Human Rights Watch,

I spent one to two weeks at the mabahith office,
blindfolded. They asked, "Where were you on [the hijri date of the Holiday Inn
events]? I was forced to stand for two weeks. I slept only leaning against the
wall. When I tried to sleep on the floor they came and beat me. Sometimes, they
would pour cold water on me to wake me up. The beatings included falaqa
[beatings on the soles of the feet], until the blood came. I was blindfolded
while they beat me. After about four days, I began hallucinating that my family
was with me. It was the only thing that kept me going, thinking of my family.[89]

`Aqil recounted his experience:

I was summoned because two friends who had been arrested
had confessed. My interrogator asked me, "Where were you on the day of the
events?" I said, "In Abha." Every time I said that he would beat me with a
bamboo [cane], a cable, or his hand. Six days of beatings, and sleep deprivation
in the cell by forcing me to stand up. My legs swelled around the third day. My
ankles were about two-and-a-half times their normal size, up to mid-calf. Their
color was reddish blue. I couldn't stand on one leg to relieve the other,
because they were chained together.[90]

Secret Trials

After some months in al-Ha'ir prison, some prisoners were
subjected to secret tribunals. The Najran mabahith official in charge of the
investigations, Ali 'Arfiji, was present in Riyadh as a prosecutor. Defendants
received no prior notice of the proceedings or the precise charges against
them, they did not have the opportunity to consult or appoint legal counsel,
and they did not have the opportunity to appeal their convictions and
sentences. Some were even oblivious to having been tried, and learned of their
sentences from their jailers. The Riyadh court sentenced 17 Ismailis to death,
and around 65 to life in prison. Defendants did not receive copies of their
verdicts.

All of this was about three months after [transfer to Riyadh]. I was brought before three judges, in the old Greater Riyadh Court. The head of
Riyadh courts, Abdullah Abd al-'Aziz or Abd al-'Aziz Abdullah, who is known throughout
Saudi Arabia, was there. I had an idea we'd be going somewhere when I got new
clothes, but wasn't told that we were going to court. [The judge] only asked,
"Are these the questions and are those your answers?" I said, "Yes."
I went back to al-Ha'ir for one week in solitary and then to a room with others
in the same case. We were together two years and nine months before a committee
from the Ministry of Interior and the mabahith came on 5/10/1423 [December 10,
2002], and informed me that a royal pardon reduced my sentence from 12 to 10 years. This was the first time I knew my sentence. Shortly thereafter, they
brought us back to Najran prison. There, the supervisor told me that my
sentence was now six years and 250 lashes, reduced from 500 lashes, but the
previous sentence did not mention lashes. He said this is a legal verdict, but
there I didn't get to see it. When I got out after serving the sentence, I
received a statement that said, "Verdict executed. 18/3/1427 [April 17, 2006]."[91]

Kadhim, the student, gave this account:

We were nine months in the Najran general prison, with
searches and beatings, before they flew us to al-Ha'ir mabahith prison. We were
there about one year and nine months. After 15 days in solitary confinement, we
were moved together.
In Riyadh, I and two others were taken to three judges in a court. The judges
asked me about my statement and I said, "These are my words and my writing, but
it is all wrong." 'Ali 'Arfiji was there.[92] "Do you deny everything in here?"
the judge asked. I said, "Yes." He said, "Sit down, tell us the truth." I told
the truth, including the torture. 'Arfiji then said, "There are witnesses
against him." I said, "If there are witnesses, then they are coerced." The
judge looked like someone who was about to sentence me to death, glowering at
me, so I signed my statement as authentic.

The next day we went to the Expedited Court,[93] and
another judge asked, "Are these your words?" I said, "Yes." I was then taken
back to the mabahith prison, to a large room. My friend and I refused to
confess, so 'Arfiji said, "There are four of your colleagues, three of whom
have confessed but one still hasn't." So we all changed our confessions. I now
said not I and [my friend] but I and the four others had fired shots. Then we
went to another judge in court and he accepted our new confessions.[94]

Salih, the engineer, recalled his trial and sentencing:

In Riyadh, we went to a judge at the Expedited Court, and
we told him what happened in mabahith detention. The judge returned my
colleague to jail, because he denied what was in the interrogation file. After
two years and eight months in Najran's General Prison, I went back to Riyadh's al-Ha'ir, where I verified my statement in front of three judges. There were no
other proceedings. Without prior notice, two months later, I was told I'd been
sentenced to death. I spent two [more] years in al-Ha'ir, and then went back to
Najran around Rajab 1424 [June 2003]. There were maybe 90 Ismaili prisoners
coming from Riyadh to Najran in three waves. In Shawwal 1424 [December 2003] a
royal decree reduced my sentence to 10 years.[95]

Ahmad gave this account of how he learned of his sentence, although he had
never been to a court:

From Riyadh we went back to Najran in a military plane.
After two weeks in the General Prison, a supervisor with four stripes came with
a piece of paper that said my sentence was five years in prison and 500 lashes.
It was written on a computer, with maybe 13 names on it, in the form of a
table. It did not have a letterhead and it was not a legal verdict. I said, "I
have not been sentenced by the Ministry of Interior." He said, "This is your
new sentence." After one week, another guy came and verbally told me that my
lashes had been reduced to 250. Every week I received 50 lashes.[96]

`Aqil told his story:

After six to seven months in Narjan's General Prison, I was
taken to al-Ha'ir's mabahith prison. The first 16 days I was in solitary
confinement. Then I was taken to the Greater Court of Riyadh. Ali al-Arfiji,
head of Najran's mabahith, was there, acting as a prosecutor. I was the only
defendant in court. I said, "I was beaten and forced to sign a confession."
Arfiji said, "There are witnesses against you." I signed the minutes of the
session and went back to al-Ha'ir. I was there about two years and two months.
While there, we received a royal amnesty. It was the night of Eid al-Fitr,
30/9/1423 [December 5, 2002]. We were told that 17 of us sentenced to death had
their sentences commuted to 10 years in prison, and the rest of us had their
prison sentences halved. These were two separate amnesties. I did not know my
sentence until that time. I signed a paper saying that my sentence was reduced
from 12 years to 10 years. Three days later, I was back in Najran prison, where
I stayed for another three years. A week after returning, a supervisor said my
sentence was now six years and 300 lashes. Only three of us were lashed in
public. On 22/3/1427 [April 21, 2006] I was released. There is no written
verdict for me. I don't know whether my sentence was issued from Najran court
or Riyadh's Greater Court.[97]

A series of royal pardons commuted the death sentences to
prison terms and also reduced the lengths of prison sentences, with 10 years
the longest remaining sentence. During his visit to Najran in October 2006,
King Abdullah issued the most recent pardon, releasing 10 of the 17 initially
sentenced to death from prison. The remaining seven are serving the last two
years of their 10-year sentence.

Firings and Forced
Transfers

Local authorities, with the coordination of the central
government, also forced at least 449 Ismaili state employees to quit or to take
up positions outside the region, often in parts of the kingdom furthest away
from Najran. Many resigned. Others were fired without the option of relocating.
King Abdullah has not taken any remedial action to allow fired or relocated
workers to return to their jobs in Najran.

In a petition to then-Crown Prince Abdullah written around
2003, Ismaili shaikhs complained of "the transfer of employees from the region
outside it" as well as "a lack of employment of persons from the region and
their racist treatment, and imputing empty charges against some of them in
order to fire them from their work."[98]

One of those fired was the Ismaili mabahith officer
described in Chapter IV, above, who was arrested and held for eight-and-a-half
months for not contributing to the round up of participants in the Holiday Inn
events. According to the man's relative interviewed by Human Rights Watch,
despite a long record of service the officer was fired immediately after being
let out of detention.[99]

Karim, the policeman who had been jumped, blindfolded, and
tied up by colleagues in the immediate aftermath of the Holiday Inn events,
simply for being Ismaili, and was then tortured in mabahith custody (see
Chapters IV and V), kept his job after his time in detention but was
transferred out of Najran. He told Human Rights Watch in December 2006:

I was transferred to Tabuk, in the north. Work there was
normal. Then with some wasta [connections] I got to go to Riyadh. But the order also said that I was to become a traffic cop. Then I went to 'Asir
for one year. I sent my files to [Assistant Minister for Security Affairs]
Prince Muhammad bin Nayef with medical reports of my parents. I am the oldest
son and I support them. The last time I tried to get relocated back to Najran
was about two months ago. I never received a reply.[100]

Another Ismaili affected by transfer was "Muqtada," a border
guard. He told Human Rights Watch:

I had a certificate of appreciation from the governor of
the region, three from [Fahd] al-Sudairy [the previous governor], and two from
[Prince] Mish'al. I was promoted in 1416 [1995]. In my file there is only one
absence, in 1407 [1987] for one day, that's it. Then the hotel events occurred
and I was transferred. I was not at the hotel or at the Mansura mosque. About
two months after the events, 50 of us [border guards] were transferred, me to
the Kuwaiti border. They said it would only be for three months, because they
needed us there. The original order said that all 50 of us should go to Salwa
on the Qatari border, but then an extraordinary order came [transferring me to
the Saudi-Kuwaiti-Iraqi border]. This is the furthest point from Najran. In
1424 [2003] I managed to transfer from Ruq'i to Abha, in 'Asir, where I still
work. I asked to go back to Najran, but they said that a paper from Riyadh military intelligence came back saying "we do not recommend" his return. Normally,
every four years there's a promotion. When the hotel events occurred I was in
for promotion, but I had no luck.[101]

Badi, the hospital worker arrested from his workplace the
day after the Holiday Inn events (see above), was told on the day he went back
to work after getting out of detention that he was being transferred:

The director came and said, "Congratulations, there will
[be judicial] procedures." I was told not to come back to work, until they got
the all-clear. I remained at home three months, on half salary. This is the
regulation until you are declared not guilty. I was the only one transferred
from the hospital. Some others were perhaps taken after me. About 40 persons in
total from all the Ministry of Health departments were transferred. The
mabahith wrote back to the hospital that there was no problem. I went back to
work for two to three months, but in [the month of] Ramadan, the order for my
transfer to Baha came. I went to Baha. The Baha mabahith came to the hospital
to question me, twice. In 1422 [2001] I was sent to Jeddah, and in 1426 [2005]
I was sent to 'Asir. About one week ago, I was sent to the most remote possible
place. You need a landcruiser to get there.[102]

An Ismaili who studied the transfers told Human Rights
Watch:

Most of [those transferred] did not even participate in the
demonstration [at the Holiday Inn or at the Mansura]. Over the past year or so
[since 2005], a very small number, 10 to 15, have been able to come back to
their jobs in Najran. They are from one village, and they spent a long time
submitting applications to the ministries to be able to get back. Thankfully,
transfers have now stopped and Najranis are not being sent away any more.[103]

Hasan, the customs official jailed for participating in the
Holiday Inn events, told Human Rights Watch that when he got out of prison he
had to surrender his passport. "I don't know how long I am banned from
traveling," he said. "I was fired from work. Before the verdict was issued, I
got half my salary, 1,000 riyal. After the verdict, I got a letter firing me
from my job at customs. Now I do not work and do not have the capital to start
a company."[104]

Former prisoner Ahmad said, "The day I got out [of prison],
I was taken to the mabahith. There, they told me I was banned from public
employment. It was 18/1/1426 [February 27, 2005]. A separate piece of paper
said I was also banned from travel abroad for two years."[105]

Those who were students at the time of their arrests were
unable to complete their studies after their release from prison. Sahir told
Human Rights Watch:

I was one of those sentenced to death for the events in
Najran. Then my sentence was reduced, and I was pardoned by the king in the
last pardon. I have tried to resume my studies, but have had no luck. I have
one year left in the King Abd al-'Aziz University in Jeddah. The university
told me they cannot reinstate me after five years or so have passed, and that's
why I am here in Riyadh to talk to the minister of higher education to get
special permission.[106]

"Abu Ghaith," "Fadil," and `Aqil, students at King Khalid University in Abha at the time, were unable to resume their studies after
they were interrupted by prison terms.[107]

King Abdullah pardoned Khadim during his visit to Najran in
October 2006. However, the mabahith imposed a two-year foreign travel ban on
him and prohibited him from attending any public celebrations. When Kadhim
wanted to resume his studies in physical education at King Khalid University in Abha, the university turned him down, because he had "surpassed the legal
timeframe" allowed for suspending studies.[108] He had needed just nine more
credit hours to graduate.[109]

Arrests for Speaking
Out

Saudi authorities largely succeeded in their efforts to keep
the details of events leading up to the Holiday Inn clash and its aftermath
from public scrutiny both inside the kingdom and abroad. There has yet to be a
full accounting. Only recently has information slowly emerged as the
authorities released prisoners from that period and groups of Ismaili elders
and intellectuals petitioned the king, prompting the two Saudi human rights
institutions-the National Society for Human Rights and the Human Rights
Commission-to look into their complaints.[110]

In addition to real and purported participants in the events
of April 23-24, 2000, Saudi authorities imprisoned, with and without trials,
those who dared to speak publicly about the events, as well as about official
discrimination, suppression of their religious practices, arbitrary arrests,
and torture. The mabahith arrested "Amin" a year-and-a-half after he had
alerted an Arab news channel about the Holiday Inn events on the day they took
place, although al-Harith did so from a town hundreds of kilometers away from
Najran. He told Human Rights Watch that in mabahith detention:

I spent about 10 months to one year in a cell, alone,
underground, and talked to nobody except for my interrogator and the judge,
twice. It was miserable and I began talking to the ants in my cell. You
couldn't go to the toilet more than twice [a day], you couldn't drink water
when you wanted, so every time the soldier let me, I drank as much as I could.
After two months, the judge asked me to confirm that I had talked to Al
Jazeera. I did. After about 10 months, the judge told me, "I have sentenced you
to seven years," and indicated that he had received the verdict from the
government.[111]

The prosecutor brought charges against Amin for four
offenses: 1) calling Al Jazeera, 2) disobedience to the ruler, 3) disparaging
the reputation of the kingdom abroad, 4) and a poem he wrote.[112] His prisoner
card cited "secret security charges" as the reason for his imprisonment.[113]
Following his conviction, the judge transferred him to the General Prison. His
father was able to secure his release after he had served three years of his
seven-year sentence.[114]

The mabahith arrested Husain on December 24, 2003, from his
office and confiscated his computer.[115] After spending seven months in
solitary confinement, he and two others, Nabil, and Shibli, were tried in late
July 2004 on charges of "belonging to [web] forums engaged in violating
security and damaging the nation." Their sentences were two years in prison and
750 lashes each.[116]
Husain told Human Rights Watch that in court:

they accused me of 10 things: Instigating people to write on
the internet, instigating violence, promoting the Ismaili faith (madhhab),
and so forth. There was no evidence at all. It came after I issued a report on
the internet about the forced dispersal of Ismaili officials to other regions
of the kingdom. All they said was that Ali al-Ahmad, the opposition Saudi in America, took our writings and made something with them. I was sentenced to two years and
750 lashes. I asked for the court verdict, so that I could respond to the
charges, but they said it was secret and they never gave me the verdict. It was
important to get it when I filed my appeal against the case at the appeals
court in Mekka. I did anyhow, but the verdict was confirmed.[117]

Almost a year-and-half after the Holiday Inn events in
Najran, the news of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in New York and Washington DC, and the high proportion of Saudi citizens among those who
carried out the final attack, prompted the government to invite more foreign
journalists to visit the kingdom. A reporter for the Wall Street Journal,
James Dorsey, after several months reporting on a variety of topics in the
kingdom, visited Najran and heard first-hand from Ismailis about the Holiday
Inn events as well as their concerns about official discrimination.

In his January 9, 2002 article on Najran, Dorsey wrote:

Shiites and Ismailis, who tend to inhabit poorer areas of Saudi Arabia, charge that they have been subject to discrimination for decades … Ismailis …
also want the government to free 93 Ismailis … who were arrested last April
after riots protesting the arrest of an Ismaili cleric and the raiding of a
local mosque in predominantly Ismaili Najran. Unrest in this city of 200,000
people has been fueled further by the authorities' reluctance to appoint local tribesmen
to key government positions, as well as the transfer of some 1,000 local civil
servants to jobs elsewhere in the kingdom. Tribesmen say the government's
policy is aggravating local unemployment, already running at an estimated 40%.[118]

Dorsey also cited a local official of the Commission for the
Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV), the religious police, as
saying that "[Ismailis] are infidels because they do not follow the Sunna
[example of the Prophet Muhammad] … They don't believe that the Quran is
complete and they hate the Sunnis."[119]

Following publication of Dorsey's article, the Saudi
mabahith arrested two of his sources. Shaikh Ahmad bin Turki Al Sa'b, whom
Dorsey quoted in the article, was arrested on January 15, 2002. Al Sa'b claims that he was subjected to unacceptable treatment upon arrest,
including beatings all over his body. A medical record three weeks after his
arrest by a doctor at King Khalid Hospital in Najran noted that Al Sa'b vomited
blood on February 9, 2002 and had an inflamed esophagus and an inflammation of
the stomach. The doctor wrote that he considered Al Sa'b "unfit for flogging at
the present time."[120]
A court sentenced Al Sa'b to seven years in prison and hundreds of lashes, but
the authorities released him prior to the end of his sentence.[121]

Another source for Dorsey's article told Human Rights Watch
that he was arrested in another city, flown to Najran, and kept for four months
in the mabahith there before "one day, they just said, 'You're free to go.'" While
in detention, he said, officials only asked him about the article while
torturing him:

I was not allowed to sleep for seven days, that was the
most difficult torture. I just lay there and said to them, "Cut off my hand, my
head, I do not care, but I cannot get up." I was hung upside down, beaten on
the feet, and made to wipe up my own blood on my hands and feet. I never went
to court.[122]

The authorities also arrested Murad and sentenced him to 18
months in prison and 500 lashes for his contact with the Wall Street Journal
reporter.[123]

A number of Ismaili elders went to see Crown Prince Abdullah
after news emerged of the death sentences for 17 Ismailis implicated in the
Holiday Inn events (see above). The Ministry of Interior had all petitioners
arrested, thrown in prison for four months, and flogged with 60 lashes. Even
the Sudanese employee of the print shop that had prepared the petition to
Crown-prince Abdullah and his assistant was arrested and then deported.[124]

In another case, Saudi border guards arrested a fellow
border guard, an Ismaili of the Harith tribe within a year of the Holiday Inn
events. A court sentenced him to three years in prison for having remarked to
a colleague in conversation that Ismailis would take revenge if those arrested
after the Holiday Inn events were executed.[125]

VI. Official Attacks on Ismaili Ethnic and Religious
Identity

Following Najran's incorporation into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a result of a 1934 treaty with Yemen, King Abd al-'Aziz made an
undertaking to the Yam tribe of Najran to respect their religious and ethnic
rights.[126]
However, as the central state became more active in Najran by expanding public
schooling, improving infrastructure, and enlarging the state bureaucracy, these
promises eroded. Teachers, engineers, and bureaucrats from outside the region
came to Najran to administer local affairs, bringing with them Wahhabi-inspired
curricula and Sunni-influenced welfare programs, and building Sunni mosques.

The king appoints the governors of Saudi Arabia's 13 provinces based on nominations from the minister of interior. From the early 1960s
until 1996, Najran was governed by members of the Sudairy family.[127]
In 1996, Prince Mish'al bin Sa'ud bin Abd al-'Aziz Al Sa'ud was appointed
governor.

Ismailis from Najran complain that under Prince Mish'al, their identity as Ismailis came under threat and that they suffered increased
discrimination and interference in their affairs. They give examples of
officials disparaging the Shia faith, and the Ismaili faith in particular; of
increased missionary and discriminatory charitable activity by Sunnis from
outside, including in schools; of increased restrictions on Ismaili religious
practices; and of a perceived plan to reduce the demographic weight of Ismailis
by naturalizing Sunni Yemenis. These factors provide the background for the
Holiday Inn hotel events of April 2000.

Ismailis'
most acute concern at present is the naturalization of tens of thousands of
Yemenis who have migrated into the Najran area at various times as refugees
from southern Yemen, fleeing political persecution under the authoritarian
leftist government of the former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. These refugees often share the
Wahhabi religious thought that prevails in Saudi Arabia and have found jobs as
teachers and judges in Najran. Their naturalization affects the demographic
composition of the region, where Ismailis presently constitute a large
majority.[128]
Viewed alongside existing discrimination and the forced transfers of Ismaili
officials out of the province, the influx and perceived favored treatment of
naturalized Yemenis lead Ismailis to fear that continued naturalizations
threaten their ethnic and religious identity and the future of the spiritual
capital of Sulaimani Ismailism.

Coupled with the issue of naturalization of Yemeni tribes is
the battle over land in Najran. Many Ismailis have waited for a decade or more
to receive land grants from the state. Meanwhile, Ismailis have seen the
government build cities with free housing and municipal services and distribute
land plots to these Yemenis, whether they have become Saudi citizens or not.
One satellite township erected around 2000 and since expanded, called Mish'aliyya after the governor, provides housing and city services for thousands of Yemenis.[129]
Many Ismailis see Prince Mish'al
as the force behind a policy of restricting Ismaili access to land and jobs and
suppressing their religious freedom.

Saudi officials regularly malign the Ismaili faith, which
under the Fatimids of Egypt in the 10th and 11th
centuries was the faith of the leading power in the Islamic world. In a fatwa
(religious edict) issued on April 8, 2007, the Permanent Committee for
Religious Research and Opinion, a subsidiary body to the Council of Senior
Religious Scholars tasked with officially interpreting Islamic faith, ritual,
and law, declared that "to call that state Fatimid [after the Prophet
Muhammad's daughter, Fatima] is a false label," because "its founder was a
magician," and "he and his followers are corrupt infidels, debauched atheists."[130]
Statements like this by government-appointed clerics put an official stamp of
approval on an interpretation of Islamic history that disparages the Ismaili
Fatimids.

The statement and its implications go beyond a characterization
of a historical period by proclaiming that the Fatimid state wrought havoc on
Muslims "which suffices to repel anyone who raises its flag and who advocates
for it." The Ismailis of Saudi Arabia feel historically connected and
religiously bound to the Fatimid state, while not advocating for a return to
it, but by the April 2007 fatwa state clerics declared that historical and
religious allegiance impermissible: "[I]t is not allowed … for us to call on
people to adhere to that deviant state of 'Ubaid" (referring to the founder of
the Fatimid caliphate, 'Ubaid Allah al-Mahdi).[131] The Ismailis of
Najran considered this statement a grave insult aimed at delegitimizing their
religious identity as Ismailis and as Muslims. Ismaili leaders, on April 24,
2007, presented a complaint to the governmental Human Rights Commission
decrying "expressions of doubt and declarations [of Ismailis] as infidels" in
the Committee's statement.[132]
The government took no known steps to revise or clarify the fatwa.

This fatwa is not an isolated incidence. In August 2006, on
the date Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven from Jerusalem, Shaikh Salih al-Luhaidan, a cleric and Saudi Arabia's supreme judge, gave a
lecture in the Holy Mosque of Mekka. That night (lailat isra' wal-mi'raj)
is of particular religious significance to Ismailis, and they were present in
large numbers in the Holy Mosque. In his lecture, al-Luhaidan said the
Ismailis, "came from Morocco, Tunis, and Egypt, and they are Fatimids, and they
are here [in Saudi Arabia] and there [in Egypt]. Outwardly they appear Islamic,
but inwardly, they are infidels, infidels, infidels."[133]

These incidents contradict the 2003 claim of a Ministry of
Foreign Affairs official who told the UN committee evaluating Saudi Arabia's report on its anti-discrimination measures that Saudi Arabia

made use of all available educational and cultural means
and the media to promote tolerance and eliminate discrimination. Religious and
other academic curricula emphasized the firmly established Islamic principles
prohibiting discrimination.[134]

A former teacher told Human Rights Watch that only in the
2004-05 (1425-26) editions of the history curricula did the Ministry of
Education remove references to "deviant sects" (tuyur munharifa), which
included the Ismailis by name.[135]

This stigmatization of Ismailis at the national level by
leading government officials tasked with interpreting religion, and (by
extension in Saudi Arabia) the law, contradicts King Abdullah's professed goal
of treating all subjects equally.[136]
In his April 2007 speech to the Shura Council, an appointed body, King Abdullah
said that his goal was to preserve

national unity and strengthen its guarantees … Kindling
sectarian disputes, reviving regional feuds, and one group in society seeking
to dominate another group stands in contrast to the guarantees of Islam and its
liberality and constitutes a threat to the national unity and the security of
the society and the state.[137]

"Kindling sectarian disputes" was the effect of an interview
Najran's governor Prince Mish'al gave to the Saudi-owned pan-Arab Al-Hayat
newspaper on January 4, 2005. Nearly two years later, several Ismailis told
Human Rights Watch how upset they were over the governor's choice of words.[138]
Prince Mish'al, responding to a question about the extent of religious freedom
that the Ismai'lis and Zaidis enjoy in Najran, said that he "invite[s the
reporter] personally to visit the existing temples in Najran, and that [he]
call[s on the reporter] to visit the person that they consider the number one
in Ismailism, that is Shaikh al-Makrami," to ask about freedom of religious
practice.[139]
The Ismailis in Najran expressed their dismay at having the governor refer to
their mosques as "temples,"[140]
a term Muslims generally use to indicate religious practices of non-Muslims, whereas Ismailis consider themselves to be nothing other than Muslims.

Only a few years earlier Ismaili leaders complained, in a
petition to then-Crown Prince Abdullah, that "[t]he Minister of Interior
described the people of the [Najran] region in the media as deviant and
[practicing] sorcery and at one time the governor of Najran Prince Mish'al
described Najran in the newspaper Okaz as the pit of corruption,
ignorant [people]."[141]
In an undated letter written after 2005, Ismaili elders complained that Prince
Mish'al insulted Ismailis in his majlis and via the press.[142]
In the wake of the Holiday Inn events in April 2000, Prince Mish'al described
Ismaili cleric Muhammad al-Khayyat as a "sorcerer" illegally residing in Saudi Arabia whom the government had arrested "after obtaining incontrovertible evidence
that he had been persistently practicing and teaching sorcery."[143]

In November 2006 King Abdullah visited the region as part of
his first tour of the provinces after acceding to the throne in August 2005.
This was the first visit of a Saudi king to Najran in decades, and King
Abdullah brought with him promises of a university and a technical college, a
new hospital and other healthcare facilities, and other infrastructure projects
with a total value of SAR 3.3 Billion [$893 million].[144] He also
pardoned a number of prisoners (see above).[145]

The authorities prohibited an exclusively Ismaili reception
for the king. On October 12, 2006, Ahmad al-'Ajalan, the office director of
Prince Mish'al, made three local shaikhs, Ahmad Al Sa'b, Mas'ud Al Haidar, and
Zaid Shuyul, pledge not to host a reception for the king, who had already
agreed to come to such an event, lest it overshadow the official reception by the
governor.[146]
Ismaili leaders alerted human rights organizations on October 28 that the
minister of interior had given instructions to ban the reception on security
grounds.[147]
Najranis later learned that Prince Mish'al had also restricted access to the
official celebrations to those with identification badges distributed by the
governorate. According to Najrani elders, only members of the Sai'ar and Karab
tribes, from the largely Sunni town of Shurura, obtained such badges.[148]

To detract from this evidence of continuing discord between
the governor and local Ismaili shaikhs, unknown persons placed a full-page
advertisement in Al-Watan newspaper that falsely presented shaikhs Mas'ud Haidar and Ahmad Al Sa'b as thanking Prince Mish'al, King Abdullah, and Crown Prince
Sultan for the "renaissance and development" of Najran. Neither of the shaikhs
had placed the advertisement, and strongly disagreed with the message. After
the shaikhs complained in court, the king ordered a committee to investigate
the matter, which persuaded the shaikhs to drop the dispute.[149]

The king's visit was overshadowed by an apparent mistake in
the pardoning of one prisoner. A Sunni judge had sentenced Hadi Al Mutif to
death in 1994 for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Al Mutif was beaten
in the court room, his Ismaili religion insulted by the judge, and he never
received a copy of the court's verdict to file an appeal. His case had
attracted international attention around the time of the king's visit, and
authorities at Najran prison were processing him for release following the
king's pardon. A last minute phone call sent him back to prison after officials
realized that his death sentence was for a crime against God (hadd),
which is not subject to royal pardons.[150] (The case is discussed further
in Chapter VIII.)

2007 saw signs of rapprochement. The Da'i, Abdullah
al-Makrami, who assumed his functions upon the death of Husain bin Isma'il
al-Makrami in June 2005, invited Prince Mish'al to visit Khushaiwa. In November
2007 the Ministry of Interior in Riyadh directed officials in Najran "not to
interfere in affairs pertaining to the creed or jurisprudence of the followers
of the Ismaili school of thought."[151]
Najranis writing on local websites welcomed these instructions. In January 2008
Shaikh Mas'ud al-Haidar, an elected member of the city council and a critic of
the governor's earlier policies, invited Prince Mish'al to his house,
congratulating him for his recent efforts on behalf of the region.[152]

VII. Ismaili
Participation in Public Affairs

Ismailis in Najran have been excluded from effectively
participating in local public affairs in two important ways. Generally they
cannot advance to high government positions or make their views heard in
municipal and regional councils or in the all-powerful governorate. They also
perceive unequal treatment in the charity sector. On a national level, Ismailis
claim that their representatives are seldom invited to participate in important
national initiatives.

The appointed head of the provincial council in Najran is a
Sunni from outside Najran, as is the appointed head of the municipality.[153]
The members of the provincial council, also appointed, include the heads of
government departments-all Sunnis-and only about five Ismailis.[154]
Sunnis on the council include Yemeni refugees recently given citizenship.[155]
In 2005, when the kingdom held partial municipal elections for the first time
in 40 years, the six winning candidates in Najran city were all local Ismailis,
as were the six appointed members of the council.[156] Unlike the
appointed provincial council or the municipality, however, the municipal
councils hold next to no powers.

One Ismaili, Shaikh Ali bin Musallam, achieved influence as
an adviser to the late King Fahd, but many in Najran considered him a "bought
sheikh," not least due to his relation by marriage with the royal family.[157]
Another Ismaili, Muhammad Faisal Abu Saq, who currently serves in the appointed
Shura Council, headed military training programs.[158] However, many
Najranis told Human Rights Watch that they do not consider him a strong
advocate for their needs in the Shura Council, the kingdom's unelected
parliament.

Another illustrative example is the composition and
appointment of the board of the Human Rights Commission, a government body
formed in 2005. At least two prominent members of the Ismaili community
actively promoting human rights issues were suggested as members of the
25-person-strong board. Following repeated vetting by the Ministry of Interior, among others, neither remained on the list. Instead, the king appointed a
prominent Ismaili lawyer said to be close to Najran's governor to the board of
the commission.[159]

Ismailis receive few if any benefits from Sunni charitable
associations operating in Najran. The government-controlled Charitable
Cooperative Society (Jam'iya Khairiyya Ta'awuniyya) in Najran finances
construction of private homes and mosques for Sunni Yemenis who moved to Najran
during years of unrest in Yemen. Both the current and former head of Najran
courts are Sunni clerics active in this society; the chief judge is the
Charitable Cooperative Society's president.[160] The Ministry of Social Affairs
oversees this charity, a local resident told Human Rights Watch.[161]
A young Ismaili professional working outside of Najran told Human Rights Watch
that although Ismaili students represented a sizeable portion of those selected
for scholarships abroad, to his knowledge no Ismaili had ever received support
from this charity. He said that for over five years now, some Ismailis had tried
to get permission to set up their own charity under the direction of several
tribal sheikhs in order to provide for poor members of their society.[162]
They still await permission from the governorate. Their alternative suggestion
had been to include Ismailis among the potential beneficiaries of the Sunni
charity, but they have not been successful to date.[163]

The King Abd al-'Aziz Center for National Dialogue is a 2003
initiative by then-Crown Prince Abdullah to bring together representatives of
different schools of thought on controversial issues, roughly every six months.
On February 23, 2004, influential Ismaili personalities wrote to the
secretary-general of the Center for National Dialogue to complain about the
underrepresentation of Ismailis in the conferences. The 12 asked that "the
means of representation and selection be clear to us and in numbers
commensurate with the size of this region and the number of its inhabitants."[164]
There was no response.

The consequences of
complaint

The consequences for protesting or for even simply reporting
the Holiday Inn events are described in Chapter V, above. Ismailis have faced
repression and harassment when they voiced grievances over other issues.

In 2006 the Center for National Dialogue invited an Ismaili
woman from Najran, Fatima Al Tisan, head of the Women's Educational Media Unit
in the General Administration of Education in Najran, to the National Dialogue
on Education, in Tabuk. She described in her presentation the feeling of
exclusion Ismailis experience in Sunni-run schools. She spoke about how:

when we grew up, we saw our [Sunni] female companions from
when we were young eye us from afar, but without coming close, because to shake
our hand and to eat with us is vilified in their religion, just as that [Sunni]
female teacher donning piety and godliness cautioned them to. … [T]he general
instructions require the creed to be sound and we in our education thought that
we were without creed so as to continue to swallow the oppression in the
absence of justice and salvation.[165]

After Al Tisan delivered that remarkable address, the
director of girls' education in Najran, Muhammad Abd al-'Aziz al-Najim, on
December 5, 2006, removed her from her post.[166]

When a local Ismaili, Salih 'Amir, started his own ecumenical
cultural forum in Najran in 2006, the authorities soon shut it down. He held
Qiss bin Sa'ida[167]
forum events in his home, and officials tolerated a handful of initial
meetings. He specifically invited Sunni officials to join. Guest speakers
included well-known Saudi journalists, Shura Council member Muhammad Al Zulfa,
and human rights activists. But in early December 2006, the deputy minister of
interior ordered the cultural forum closed. Salih 'Amir told Human Rights
Watch:

The criminal investigation [department] called me on Sunday
and said, "You have an appointment tomorrow at the governorate." I went, and
there were the deputy (wakil) for security affairs, the governor's
office manager, and one mabahith officer. They said, "You do not have
permission for the forum. Close it." I said, "I will close it only if I get a
copy of the decision by the deputy minister of interior." I got the copy.[168]

Demonstrations are extremely rare in Saudi Arabia because the minister of interior has prohibited them. In one rare protest, Ismailis
gathered in September 2006 close to the Najran airport to demonstrate against
the policy of granting Yemeni refugees citizenship and preferential access to
land and housing. One participant told Human Rights Watch:

People in Najran suffer from not being able to do anything.
So we thought we had to do a public protest. And we gathered next to the
buildings where they were going to house the Yemenis to be naturalized. Yafa,
Khalifa, Mus'abin tribes. Eleven tribes, in all, all from south Yemen. The tribes were against communism, and Saudi Arabia accepted them in early 70s, they
came slowly, until now.[169]

These Ismailis also protested local authorities' "calling us
infidels, seizing our lands, and holding people prisoner for years without verdicts,
all because we are Ismaili Muslims," in the words of an Ismaili to Reuters.[170]
Participants and an organizer of the demonstration told Human Rights Watch that
a crowd of about 200-300 had gathered in tents they brought with them. Security
personnel surrounded them. After one demonstrator spoke with police, the
protestors dispersed peacefully.[171]
But the governorate, in a letter to the Ministry of Interior, subsequently
accused three of the organizers of the demonstration of "causing sedition."[172]

The most common way that Saudis air grievances and seek
redress is by writing to a responsible minister, local official, or member of
the royal family. Despite the dearth of international and national attention to
the situation in Najran, Ismailis have continued to send petitions to the
Najran governorate and the authorities in Riyadh. Commonly they have faced
silence, but some petitioners have paid a heavier price than having their
petition ignored.

Salih, the engineer, said he had sent 20 telegrams to the governor
of Najran and to the minister of interior complaining about Yemeni tribes
settling in the Shurfa area in Najran. Between 2001 and 2002, Assistant Minister of Interior for Security Affairs Prince Muhammad bin Nayef spoke to al-Yami several
times in Riyadh, demanding to know why he wrote "bad things" against the
government. Finally, in May 2003 officials arrested Salih in Riyadh and
transferred him to Najran, where Judge Dawud of the Najran Sharia courts
sentenced him to 18 months and 600 lashes for criticizing the Commission for
the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and the government. The sentence
was carried out.[173]

Bi'r 'Askar, a Najran-area village of around 2,500
inhabitants, has witnessed an enormous growth in marble mining by companies whose
shareholders are from outside the region and employ only a handful of local
villagers, as guards. In addition, the mining has caused health and environment
problems, confirmed by a Ministry of Health study. But when a villager
complained to the police on February 6, 2006, they arrested five residents for
one week. One of those arrested told Human Rights Watch that two captains
(names withheld by Human Rights Watch), one hailing from Ta'if and the other
being of Yemeni origin, "said to me that the arrest came on the direction of
the governor. I was told to sign the following pledge, 'I will not ask to have
the injury removed from me, and I will not inconvenience the companies and the
officials with complaints.' They released me although I did not sign. The other
four did."[174]

Shaikhs Mas'ud Al Haidar and Ahmad Al Sa'b in a grievance
letter of May, 17, 2006 complained that the only official response to a
petition, "The Homeland for All, All for the Homeland," signed by 1,200
Najranis and calling for civic action for the betterment of Najran, was
harassment of the signers.[175]

VIII. Discrimination

Discrimination in
Education and Employment

In a May 2006 letter to King Abdullah, Ismaili leaders wrote
that in addition to the forced relocation of government employees following the
Holiday Inn events, for the people of Najran the "marginalization of local
capacity [is] letting their interests lie fallow."[176]

Some Ismailis have had successful careers. Human Rights
Watch spoke to a retired colonel, a high official in a government ministry,
several successful lawyers working outside Najran, and several managers of
profitable businesses. But the high government official in particular described
how his religious identity had blocked his advancement. When he had applied for
an open professorship in his field some 15 years ago at a leading Saudi
university, the university told him they had to wait out the academic year
before it would be able to offer him the position, which it then never did.
When he inquired, he said, a high-ranking Saudi prince informed him that his
appointment "was turned down for security reasons." A few years later, he
started work in the ministry. He said that he is the only senior Ismaili
employee there, but also the only one of 300 employees who has not received a
promotion over the past 10 years. He told Human Rights Watch that people "come
to me [at work] and say, 'They talk behind your back and say you are Shia and
not to be trusted.'"[177]

Education

The kind of experience of exclusion in the Sunni education
system that Ismaili educationalist Fatima Al Tisan described in her 2006
statement to the Center for National Dialogue that got her fired from her job
(see Chapter VII) has been a frequent Ismaili complaint. In a written statement
from around 2002 later posted on the internet, one Ismaili commented, "The
people of Najran have been deprived for 15 years from attending colleges,
institutes, and military training centers."[178] An Ismaili told Human Rights
Watch, "There's no Ismaili in the army or air force college. Because Najran is
on the border and has a single religious authority, they are afraid." He said
his brother wanted to go to the Prince Nayef Security College, but was refused
although he got outstanding grades.[179]
Another Ismaili told Human Rights Watch that more than 100 Ismailis had gone to
Jordan to study aviation science, a field they were blocked from studying in Saudi Arabia.[180]

Al Tisan's statement to the Center for National Dialogue
also encompassed how job discrimination betrayed the hopes of of Ismaili
schoolchildren for a successful career because the jobs in Najran went to
non-Ismailis. She spoke of the "feeling, even as small children, that teachers
treat those of different religious schools of thought differently … and when we
held certificates as aspiring graduates eager on serving the country someone
would come to prohibit us … and we were changed by those described as
intransigent and racist who were hunting for official positions and practicing
their oppressive policy against us."[181]

Employment

Public sector and security sector jobs

In Najran, as elsewhere in the kingdom, the government is a
major employer. In 2005 Najran's governor, Prince Mish'al, told a journalist,

I want you to see for example the heads of the administrations
and of the employees we have in the governorate. Eighty per cent of them are
from among our brothers the Ismailis … and there is a high number from them in
the armed forces and in the national guard and in the police. They do not face
any restrictions in any employment.[182]

Prince Mish'al's characterizations may have been true of an
earlier time, but Ismaili accounts speak of a very different situation under
his administration. Ismailis claim that there is consistent discrimination
against them in the government's employment policy, extending to entire
sectors.

This appears to be especially the case in the governmental
security apparatus. While there are Ismailis in all branches of the military,
few reach the senior ranks that are restricted to those who graduate from the
military colleges. Informal, but nevertheless real, restrictions apply on the
seniority of position that Ismailis can attain. One retired Ismaili colonel
related how his decision to retire came after being repeatedly passed over for
promotions and feeling that his ethnic and religious origin prevented his
advancement.[183]
An Ismaili with personal knowledge of the matter told Human Rights Watch that
an air force general (name withheld) hid his Ismaili identity while serving,
and did not raise suspicion because his name is not easily identified as
Ismaili.[184]
Another Ismaili confirmed that qualified Ismailis only exceptionally raise to
higher ranks in the armed services.[185]

As of 2006 only five Ismailis were reported to be working in
the local mabahith office.[186]
One local Ismaili recalled three names of Ismaili officers who worked in the
Police Directorate or in the Traffic Administration, "but they do not have
authority."[187]
An Ismaili elder told Human Rights Watch that over the past seven years, the
government appointed not a single Ismaili to work in any of the 213 open
positions in the civil defense department.[188] A private report from around
2002 complains, "The number of [Ismaili] workers in all civil and military
divisions in Najran does not exceed the fingers of one hand in each department.[189]

Commenting generally about public sector employment,
Ismailis cited their exclusion from leadership positions as the primary
problem. One complained, "We Najranis do not fill any of the important
positions in the province. Najranis are in maybe less than 2 percent of high
positions."[190]

Regarding employment in state education, one interviewee
said he did not know "one Najrani man or woman who occupies a leadership
position, even at the school cafeteria."[191] A former Ismaili schoolteacher
now working in the administration of the Ministry of Education told Human
Rights Watch that the director and deputy director of the ministry's Najran
branch, Sunnis from outside the region, were of lower professional rank than qualified
Ismaili educationalists.[192]

Vocational colleges were only set up in Najran in the 1990s,
long after other parts of the kingdom had established them, and King Abdullah
promised to combine training colleges and elevate their status to the region's
first university on his October 2006 visit. In 2008 two Ismailis separately
told Human Rights Watch that Ismailis from Najran had been passed over in the
hiring of the university president, all teaching staff, and most other staff,
despite suitable qualifications.[193]

my daughter graduated with a grade of 93 out of 100 from
high school and went to teach Arabic and social studies in the [name withheld]
school for two years. But then her contract was not renewed and a new Wahhabi
teacher was brought in who had lower grades. The head of the local education
department made the decision. He is a Wahhabi.[194]

Speaking of the civil service more broadly, one Ismaili who,
through years of working in the governorate of Najran, gained first-hand
insight into the mechanisms of discrimination that is normally hidden from
public view, told Human Rights Watch, "In 1402 [1982], there were seven Ismaili
directors out of 35 of government departments, and now there is only one": the
director in the local branch of the Trade Ministry is the only Ismaili to hold
that rank.[195]

Saudi Arabia's civil service has 15 ranks, and ministers
appoint candidates to ranks 11 and higher. This former official said that
throughout his many years working for the governorate "only one person from the
region was appointed above rank 10, while 20 persons from outside the region
were appointed."[196]

This civil servant had not lost faith in the public
employment system. "To a certain degree there is a clean system in the civil
service appointments," he said, but with respect to Najran he described a
pattern of special appointments, which make up around 10 percent of the
governorate's staffing, a figure higher than in other regions. For these jobs,
he said, "the prince [governor] makes the decisions and that is the reason that
there is no Ismaili. The prince writes the appointment letter to the Ministry
of Interior, saying the appointment of this outsider is for peace and stability
or something like that. They prefer people from outside the region." The
reasons for excluding locals, he said, included concerns that local employees
with ties with the local population and in the position of informed insiders
might divulge "secrets" of the region to the broader community, "but mostly
they don't like the locals. By contrast, their relation with senior officials
from outside the region [is] one of trust and security."[197]

At civil service positions of ranks 10 and below, promotions
are supposed to be based on competitive examination for vacant positions, or by
automatic elevation based on length of service. The former official quoted
above explained, "The law says that either every two years you can compete for
a higher post, or every four years your rank is raised as a matter of course."[198]
A local activist explained to Human Rights Watch that after 1996, however, when
Prince Mish'al became governor, there "began a rotation system of officials
into Najran. For example, they brought people in the sixth civil service rank
from outside Najran to be the boss of Najrani employees of the eighth rank."[199]
When Human Rights Watch asked if the preference for outsiders could be
explained by the absence of local talent, especially given the lag in local
institutions of higher education, the civil service expert cited numerous
examples of local Ismailis who had obtained certificates from the Institute of General Administration, or achieved excellent results in job training
programs.[200]

One student described what he perceived as an unwritten
government policy to fill professional posts in Najran with Sunni outsiders and
disperse Ismaili professionals to other regions:

I study nursing at King Khalid University in Abha and all
the students there are Wahhabis with beards who harass me. They say "You pray
to the makrami [referring to the Da'i], but that's not true. I finished my
studies and have three choices for my preferred region of employment. There is
demand in Najran, but I know that choosing Najran will delay my employment, so
I will choose Dammam, Riyadh, or Baha.[201]

According to many Ismailis, official discrimination in
employment currently takes the form of an apparent preference for Sunni Yemenis
recently settled in Najran over indigenous Ismailis. A January 2008 petition to
Governor Prince Mish'al from Ismaili elders and activists decried "granting
[the Yemenis] priority and facilitations that the citizen from Najran does not
enjoy."[202]
Of the naturalized Yemenis, "two have now become judges in Najran. Others get
government jobs, they get easier permits for trade, and even Yemenis without
residency permit are not arrested," an Ismaili banker working outside Najran
told Human Rights Watch.[203]
One former insider of the Najran governorate sadly concluded, "Yes, there is
discrimination in the appointment policy, favoring the outsiders."[204]

Private sector

Ismailis also claim discrimination in local business
opportunities. They cite the example of the Najran Cement Factory, which Prince
Mish'al planned to set up together with two retired Ministry of Defense
officials, Muhammad Mani' Abal'ala and Sa'ud bin Sa'd al-'Uraifi. They set a
minimum investment amount of SAR 15 million [$ 4 million], which was beyond the
means of locals, effectively excluding any local ownership.[205]

Mining companies have also recently started to upgrade their
activities in the Najran area, especially in Bi'r 'Askar. The Tinhat company,
owned by Prince Muhammad bin Sa'ud, grew from four employees 15 years ago to
300 now.[206]
Other companies operating in the area are the bin Ladin company (now Bakr and
Ibrahim), the Granite and Marble Company, the Red Sea Company, the al-Harbi
company, the Misar al-Sa'udi Granite Company, the Taqaddum Company, the Awtad
Riyadh, and Sa'id al-Ghamidi Company. Bi'r 'Askar has a population of 2,556,
but out of a total of around 1,000 employees working in these companies not
more than 15 are locals, who are earning SAR 1,000-1,500 [$266- $400] per
month, a group of men from the village told Human Rights Watch.[207]
When a group of Ismailis wanted to open their own granite and marble company in
2005, the Ministry of Petrol and Mineral Resources as well as local authorities
refused to grant a license.[208]

Religious Freedom

Ismaili and Wahhabi interpretations of Islam, though they
differ in some respects, agree on the broad outlines of Muhammad's prophecy,
the Quran, and the Prophet Muhammad's Sunna (norm-setting behavior) as sources
of law, and on most elements of the Islamic creed. Like the Shia in the Eastern Province, however, the Ismailis in Najran face government infringements in the
practice of their religion. It has already been noted elsewhere in this report
that senior Saudi religious officials have called Ismailis "infidels" (kuffar)
and "atheists" (zandaqa), and they attribute to Shia generally these and
other qualities, such as being "rejectionists" (rawafidh), that deny
they are true Muslims. In Saudi Arabia, the state perceives itself as drawing
religious legitimacy from its jurisdiction over Mekka and Medina, the birthplaces of Islam, and from its interpretation of the Islamic creed that it
regards as normative. Being within the realm of Islam (dar al-islam)
carries significance for social acceptance and, to believers, supreme
importance on the day of judgment in the hereafter. This significance is
especially pronounced in the application of law, which is infused with
religion-based jurisprudence (see section "Discrimination in the justice
system," below).

One direct result of the intolerance the official Saudi
religious establishment displays towards minority creeds is the government's
destruction, over the past five to ten years, of mosques frequented by
Ismailis, and Shia generally, in Medina, including the Fudhaih mosque of Imam
Ali bin Abi Talib, the Shams mosque,[209] the al-'Aridh mosque (from
Ummayad times), and the fountain of the Prophet's wife, Umm Ibrahim.[210]

In a Mekka conference convened by the Organization of The
Islamic Conference in the summer of 2006 to reconcile differences between
Islamic sects and schools of jurisprudence, conferees listed the Shia Zaidi and
Ja'fari sects as legitimate schools of thought, but excluded mention of the
Ismailis. Ismaili protests succeeded in removing from the draft language names
of specifically accepted schools of thought, substituting instead a general
assertion that "all schools of thought are recognized."[211]

That this is not the case in practice is illustrated by a
personal account related to Human Rights Watch. A young Ismaili in Najran told
us how, having served a short prison term for illegal weapons possession, a
year after his release he got a job in the local Ministry of Finance after
succeeding in the civil service competitive examination. He completed all the
paperwork, but officials told him that his conviction barred him from
government work for four years.

I tried to appeal but had no luck. They said, "Go to the
criminal investigation to get an exemption." There, an officer told me I needed
a stamp from a [religious] shaikh certifying that I pray five times a day. I
said, "I am Ismaili. I can't get that stamp. Only Sunni shaikhs have stamps."
He just said, "Bye-bye."[212]

The dominant Saudi view of the religious praxis of Ismailis
as religiously suspect manifests itself in discriminatory policies, detailed
below, that violate the religious freedom of the Ismaili community. First,
security and administrative authorities directly prevent Ismailis from
practicing their faith and imparting religious beliefs to their followers.
Second, the state materially supports Sunni mosques and preachers, but not
similar Ismaili facilities or personnel. Third, the intolerance Saudi officials
sometimes display towards heterodox Islamic practices, and Ismailis in
particular, shows up in the promotion of the state-sanctioned Sunni creed and
practice among schoolchildren and the disparagement of Ismaili beliefs.

Saudi authorities have at various times exiled the Ismaili Da'i,
detained him, or placed him under house arrest. One Ismaili told Human Rights
Watch in July 2006 that "the Ismaili religious leader [was] prohibited to go
out to preach to people and pray with them."[213] Another Ismaili specified that
"the Da'i and all Ismaili men of religion do not teach since the Holiday Inn
hotel events … [because] of certainly not publicized government pressures."[214]
In an earlier incident, in 1997 the Ministry of Interior placed the Ismaili
spiritual guide under house arrest, and prohibited visitors, communal prayer,
or any other interaction with him. A group of Ismailis went to Interior Minister Prince Nayef to complain, but found themselves imprisoned and ill-treated following
their complaint. Shortly thereafter, the Da'i was released from house arrest,
and the petitioners to Prince Nayef signed a pledge not to "inconvenience" the
authorities again, and surrendered their passports.[215]

In an undated letter sometime before June 2005, Ismaili
shaikhs from Al Fatima, Jashm, and Muwajid, and the sons of Abdullah Hamadan,
asked then-Crown Prince Abdullah to "remove the shackles imposed on our shaikh
… and treat him like you treated his predecessors."[216] These
restrictions continued into 2008. One Ismaili close to the Da'i told Human
Rights Watch, "Today, the Da'i cannot receive anyone in his house to teach the
religion, all religious teaching is forbidden, as is the printing of books."[217]

Ordinary Ismailis also face official curbs on their freedom
to practice their religion. Ismaili religious practice is similar to that of
the prevailing Sunni sect, and differences are often limited to dates of
important holidays. As described in Chapter IV, this minor difference (reliance
on a fixed calendar as opposed to the official Saudi calendar's reliance on
actual sighting of the new moon to announce the beginning of a month) prompted
local authorities in Najran to close Ismaili mosques at the time of the Eid
al-Fitr holidays in early 2000, which in turn spurred the Holiday Inn
disturbances. In an earlier incident in the summer of 1995, the mabahith
arrested a group of at least eight Ismaili men from Najran who had just
returned from pilgrimage in May because they had adhered to their own calendar
for calculating the days of the pilgrimage, which differed slightly from the
official Saudi calculation of those dates. A contemporary of these men asserted
that their jailers deprived the men of sleep for a period of a month.[218]
That same year, the authorities arrested two Ismaili prayer leaders during a Muslim holiday, again because the Ismaili calendar diverged slightly from official Saudi
timekeeping.[219]

Shaikhs Ahmad Al Sa'b and Mas'ud Al Haidar, in a petition to
King Abdullah written after August 2005, complained that Ismailis did not have
the opportunity to "take care of the affairs of their creed, to build mosques
or enlarge existing ones, to acquire their [religious] books and to give
[religious] instruction to those who want [to receive it] and who are
interested."[220]
Human Rights Watch heard accounts supporting all of these complaints.

One Ismaili told us, "In early 1426 [2005], the people of
the Al Mutif area in Ubayyan quarter wanted to build a new mosque to pray close
to their homes, but did not receive permission. The matter went to the
religious police, then to the Ministry of Guidance, Islamic Affairs, Preaching
and Foundations, then to the governorate, then to the security departments. In
the end, they were able to build the mosque."[221] By contrast
with this lengthy struggle to get state permission, another interviewee
recalled that in around 2002 the state confiscated land in two exclusively
Ismaili areas and built Sunni mosques there, to which it now busses Bangladeshi
migrant workers for prayers.[222]
An Ismaili currently living outside Najran recounted how one day several years
ago, authorities from the Ministry of Islamic Affairs put a padlock on the
small mosque adjacent to the petrol station his family owned and appointed a
Sunni imam to work there. The family, who had built the mosque, was not allowed
any longer to pray there according to the dictates of their faith.[223]
In another example, he mentioned that "about four to five years ago, people
wanted to enlarge the Salih bin Ruqban mosque, but they never received
permission to do so."[224]
Around three years ago, Ismailis failed to gain permission to enlarge the
al-Jaffa mosque.[225]

In Shurfa, an area close to Najran city where the government
is currently settling Yemeni Sunni tribes, local inhabitants told Human Rights
Watch they were not permitted to build Ismaili mosques.[226] In a tour of a
sparsely populated stretch of the Najran valley on the border with Yemen toward the end of 2006, Human Rights Watch was able to observe several Sunni mosques,
but only isolated Ismaili mosques, although Ismailis still outnumbered the
Sunnis from outside the region who had settled there recently.

Saudi Arabia censors all printed material that enters the
kingdom or is published there. Some Saudis say that the list of permitted
materials has grown more inclusive when it comes to religious works by Muslims who do not adhere strictly to interpretations favored by Saudi clerics, but Ismailis
still cannot print or freely import their own prayer books.

One Ismaili in Najran told Human Rights Watch in 2008,

We have the books we have. They are in our houses. We
cannot reprint them here or bring them in from Egypt or Bahrain. If a customs official catches you with a banned Ismaili prayer book on the causeway [from Bahrain], he will confiscate it.[227]

Even possession of such prayer books can provoke
governmental intervention. One Ismaili elder told Human Rights Watch of the
case of an 82-year-old Ismaili man, who in November 2005 went to Medina, where
religious police discovered him reading Munassaq Du'a, an Ismaili prayer
book, confiscated his book, and called the regular police who arrested him.
This was a book the Ministry of Information had permitted, he said.[228]

An Ismaili grievance petition circulating in 2003 noted that
the government

continue[s] to confiscate Ismaili prayer books with prayers
to Imam Ali and to Imam Zain al-'Abidin, and demand[s] they be substituted with
books by bin 'Uthaimin and bin Baz, two prominent Wahhabi religious figures
[who served] on the highest governmental body for religious interpretation.[229]

The authorities force Ismaili children to partake in Sunni
religious education classes in school. In a petition to then-Crown Prince
Abdullah, Ismaili leaders claimed that "teachers from outside the region
forcibly inculcate the pupils [with Wahhabi doctrines] and threaten them with
failure if they do not participate, and they request the pupils to bring the
religious books of their [Ismaili] religious creed and then subject them to
ridicule and curses."[230]
An Ismaili father told Human Rights Watch in February 2008, "My children, a son
in sixth grade and a daughter in fourth grade, are constantly taught that what
your father thinks is wrong, that you Ismailis are wrong."[231] Harsh
punishments have been meted out to Ismaili teachers and students for
challenging this.

In 1999 (1420) missionary Sunni schoolteachers tried to
force Ismaili schoolchildren in Najran to convert to their Wahhabi Sunni
doctrine. They used beatings, threats, and grades reduced below the level
needed for admission to universities and jobs. Some of the students, including
Muhammad Husain al-Ghibar, Zhafir Muhammad al-Salum, 'Abd al-Rahman, Faraj Al
'Abih, and Salih Ali Al Zamanan ended up in court, and were sentenced to
imprisonment and public flogging in front of fellow students.[232]

An Ismaili from Najran described to Human Rights Watch how
in the early months of 1421 (2000) a Sunni teacher reportedly insulted the
Ismaili faith and raised doubts about the patriotism of locals from Najran.
That same year, a student fought with the teacher outside school. Shortly
thereafter, the mabahith summoned a group of students, including Mubarak Salim Al Mis'id, Ali Yahya Al Salim, and Ali Farj al-Salum, from the school, mistreated
them, and charged them with resisting authority. At their trial, the judge
sentenced them to between 18 and 24 months in prison and 800 and 1,200 lashes.[233]

In another incident, around 2001, a teacher from Jizan tried
to force Ismaili students to adhere to the Wahhabi creed. The students informed
their parents, some of whom went to speak to the teacher. The teacher then
complained that the parents and three Ismaili teachers had incited the students
against him. Following this complaint, a court case ensued that resulted in the
Ismaili teachers being sentenced to flogging in front of their students.[234]

At the end of March 2003, a middle school teacher tried to
force Ismaili students to follow the Wahhabi beliefs through beatings and
intimidation. When the students refused, he took down their names, tied them
up, and paraded them through school saying, "Look at the Ismaili who refuses to
follow the school of thought of the state!"[235]

An Ismaili former history teacher told Human Rights Watch in
April 2008 about his ongoing ordeal in court following an investigation six
years ago into alleged remarks he made in class that the Ministry of Education
interpreted as insulting the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad and questioning
the official line of Sunni history in favor of Ismaili historical beliefs. The
Ministry of Education demoted him as a disciplinary measure.[236]

Preferring not to participate in missionary lectures by
Wahhabi instructors at work has been sufficient to land an Ismaili in prison.
In 1999 a civil defense department employee did not participate in a religious
lecture at his workplace because these sermons declared persons of the Ismaili
faith heretical. The mabahith arrested him. When he later complained to the
minister of interior, naming two colleagues who could testify to the incendiary
and discriminatory nature of these sermons, those colleagues were given new
assignments outside Najran.[237]

Discrimination in the
Justice System

Discriminatory policies based on Ismaili religious identity
also mar the justice system. In several cases that Human Rights Watch is aware
of, a judge ruled against an Ismaili because of his religious identity. In two
cases, the judges made this explicit, while in other cases the circumstances
surrounding the accusations, or the fact that Sunnis are not sentenced
similarly for similar offenses, strongly suggest a link between the judgment
and the minority religious identity of the accused. A further area of
discrimination against Ismailis in the justice system is the treatment of
Ismaili prisoners as compared with their fellow Sunni inmates.

Judicial legitimation of religious discrimination

Only Sunnis can be Sharia court judges in Saudi Arabia. (A very limited exception to this unwritten rule is the presence of Shia judges in two
courts in the Eastern Province who have jurisdiction over personal status cases
exclusively involving Shia. Sunni Sharia judges in the Eastern Province handle all criminal cases regardless of the sect of the defendants, all other cases
where one of the parties is Sunni, and all appeals, even in cases where both
parties are Shia.) For Ismailis in Najran, Sunni judges handle all cases,
including personal status issues such as marriage certifications (Ismailis have
to marry twice, several Ismailis told us: once in private according to their
own traditions, and once officially before a Sunni judge), and questions of
inheritance.

Mas'ud Al Haidar and Shaikh Amad Al Sa'b, the two Ismaili
tribal leaders, in a letter to King Abdullah after 2005, wrote that judges
sometimes remarked that "the people of Najran pay obedience to others beside
God and are not zealous for their country."[238]

Court rulings against Ismails solely because of
religious identity

Public outcry over two cases in which judges affirmed
discriminatory treatment of Ismailis shows that many Saudis perceive such
rulings to be wrong. By contrast, official silence and failure to rectify the
treatment of Ismailis by judges only lends a stamp of approval to
discriminatory dealings with religious minorities in the justice system.

On May 10, 2006, a judge in Jeddah refused to allow an
Ismaili lawyer to present the case of his client on the sole grounds that he is
Ismaili. Journalist Qinan al-Ghamidi portrayed the exchange between the lawyer
and the judge in the Saudi daily al-Watan newspaper:

The judge said, "I will ask you a question and you will
answer truthfully." The lawyer said, "Alright." The judge asked, "Are you of
the Yam [tribe]?" The lawyer answered, "Yes." The judge asked, "Are you Sunni
or Ismaili?" The lawyer answered, "Ismaili." The judge said, "Take your
[lawyer's] card and your power of attorney and get out, for I will accept
nothing from you. And call your client [and tell him] he can attend on his own
or look for a "Sunni" lawyer.[239]

Human Rights Watch met with the lawyer in question in
December 2006 in Jeddah. He said he had not heard from the Ministry of Justice
about any official disciplinary action against this judge. In his article,
Qinan al-Ghamidi invited the minister to respond.[240] The Saudi
National Lawyers' Committee, an interest group of lawyers under the national
Chambers of Commerce organization, requested clarifications from the ministry,
which replied that the judge in question denied the lawyer's Ismaili faith was
the reason for barring him from appearing.[241]

Shortly before that ruling on March 15, 2006, a judge in
'Asir province annulled the marriage of an Ismaili man to a Sunni woman,
reasoning that "the [marriage] contract is not sound because of the lack of
[the man's] religious qualification, because the Shia are not qualified [to
marry] Sunnis."[242]
The verdict remains in force.

Three officials in the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Awqaf, Mission, and Guidance, including the general supervisor of the Najran regional office,
served as character witnesses for a man accused by local Ismailis of wrongdoing
in a commercial case. A statement by these officials cast the local Ismaili
population as non-Muslims, alleging that the complaint against the person in
question "was issued by a people whose motive, which has not escaped the ruler,
may God grant him success, is religious jealously [of their school of thought]
and not ardor for the homeland, and the investigation into this charge has been
seized by those who are indebted to obedience to others beside God."[243]
Charging a person with worship of others beside God effectively bans the
person's testimony in court. The Najran chief judge, Muhammad bin Ahmad
al-'Askari, endorsed the view of the three officials on 3/7/1421 [October 2,
2000] in a handwritten note on the statement and affixed his signature and seal
as a sign of authentication.[244]
Human Rights Watch was unable to ascertain the outcome of the case.

Prosecutions targeting Ismail religious practice or
identity

The incident precipating the April 2000 Holiday Inn events,
covered in Chapters IV and V of this report, was the arrest of Ismaili cleric Muhammad al-Khayyat amid accusations of "sorcery."Just over a year earlier, Saudi
security forces had arrested two Ismaili prayer leaders, Mahdi and 'Ali Al
Futaih, and "accuse[d] them of sorcery and deviance," based on having found
women's hair in the house.[245]
In 1998-99 (1419), courts found Mahdi and 'Ali Al Futaih guilty of "sorcery"
and sentenced them to three years in prison and 300 lashes. Three other prayer
leaders, Nasir Al Qura'i, Muhsin Al Bahrai, and Hatim al-Makrami, were arrested
around the same period for "sorcery" and received sentences of, respectively,
seven years in prison, three years and 300 lashes, and two years and 200
lashes.[246]

In other cases, evidence of discrimination based on
religious identity is more circumstantial. In three cases, Sunni judges in
Najran sentenced three Ismailis over words they had allegedly uttered deemed
offensive to the Prophet Muhammad. One was sentenced to death for "a crime
against God," another to 14 years in prison with 4,000 lashes, and the third to six years in prison and 2,320 lashes. The death sentence has not been carried
out.

A case that received international attention is that of Hadi
Al Mutif, who allegedly said two offensive words in 1993 during afternoon
prayers with fellow cadets in a police training academy close to Najran. Najran
chief judge Muhammad Ahmad al-'Askari arraigned Al Mutif on the formal charge
of "insulting the Prophet" (sabb al-rasul). Interviewed by telephone in
prison, Al Mutif told Human Rights Watch that Judge al-'Askari did not ask him
how he wanted to plead, but said to him, "Don't deny it. If you do, you will go
back to the mabahith for further interrogation," even after Al Mutif had told
the judge that he had "hallucinations" from the torture he had endured at the
hands of his mabahith jailers, including beatings, prolonged forced standing,
and sleep deprivation.

Al Mutif's trial, which was closed to the public, began
around two years after the arraignment, and lasted six sessions. Al Mutif told Human Rights Watch that in the first session, when he heatedly challenged the
testimony of one of the witnesses, a police officer smashed Al Mutif's head into a window in the presence of the judge.

Al Mutif said that at the next session, the judge
"questioned whether I was a Muslim because I follow the Ismaili sect. They
spoke to me as though I was not a Muslim and asked 'How many prayers are there
in a day?' and made me pray in front of them." At the end of the six sessions,
the judge sentenced Al Mutif to death.

Al Mutif told Human Rights Watch that when he appealed the
verdict, Shaikh Abdullah al-Mani', chief judge of Mekka's Appeals Court, said
of Ismailis, "You are a corrupt minority, you don't belong to Islam in any
form, you have no creed or religion."[247] Al-Mani's court upheld the death
sentence against Al Mutif.

An Ismaili lawyer and activist commented to Human Rights
Watch,

The time has come that we ask the Ministry of Interior what
is happening in Najran, because after [Prince] Mish'al came, all the problems
started. Before that, a child was not sentenced to three years because he
throws a football onto a Wahhabi mosque, an Ismaili was not sentenced to death
for saying something about the prophet. We have to understand if this is
Mish'al policy or state policy.[248]

A near identical fate to that of Hadi Al Mutif befell
16-year-old Mu'idh Al Salim, a student at the Hisham bin Abd al-Malik high
school in Najran. On May 4, 2001, the mabahith arrested him after he had
allegedly used words deemed insulting to the Prophet Muhammad when he got angry
in front of his teachers who were discussing his test score. At trial, a judge
sentenced him to death, but in his case the appeals court reduced the sentence
to 14 years in prison and 4,000 lashes. King Abdullah pardoned Al Salim on his
visit to Najran in early November 2006 (see also below, "Discriminatory treatment
of Ismail prisoners).[249]

In a third case, a court in Najran sentenced journalist Hadi
al-Dughais to six years in prison and 2,400 lashes for "calling the Civil
Defense Office at 11 p.m. on March 2, 2004 while being drunk and insulting
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the king and the authorities."[250] Eighty of the
2,400 lashes he received were for drunkenness; the rest for his alleged insults
to the king and the Prophet.

Al-Dughais had called the Civil Defense after finding a
child trapped in a well. He speculated that the incompetence of the response to
his call-with the rescue team taking hours to arrive-became a matter the Civil
Defense then wanted kept quiet. He told Human Rights Watch that when the police
came to arrest him two days later, he had no idea what the reason was, but that
he thought that his "bold writings and my religious sect" played a part, since
the Civil Defense Office was heavily staffed by Sunnis from outside the region.
He added that from his experience in prison, Ismailis usually receive more
severe sentences than Sunnis for similar crimes.[251]

Discriminatory
treatment of Ismaili prisoners

Ismaili prisoners in Najran complain that the prison
authorities treat them differently based on their religious identity. Their
biggest concern is that Ismaili prisoners rarely benefit from a reduction in
their sentences for memorization of the Quran. Current Saudi regulations hold
that a prisoner will receive a reduction of up to half his or her sentence for
memorizing the entire Quran. For only 10 chapters memorized, he or she receives
a reduction by one-sixth. For 20 chapters memorized, one-third, and for 30
chapters-the entire Quran-half the sentence. This rule is in itself
discriminatory against non-Muslims, who cannot benefit from this provision without
converting to Islam. There are no similar incentives providing for non-Muslim
religions or for persons without a declared religion.

One prisoner told Human Rights Watch that there is no stated
difference between Ismailis and Sunnis in prison in memorizing the Quran and
receiving a reduction of one's sentence. But in practice "we didn't get the
benefit of memorization. It is prohibited."[252] Another prisoner said that only
a minority of Ismailis in prison enjoyed the privilege of having their
sentences reduced for memorizing the Quran, or for good conduct, which can
produce a one-quarter reduction of sentence. In his case, he memorized half the
Quran during his imprisonment but the governor's office (imara) rejected
his request for a reduction of sentence in late 2006, stating only that "this
prisoner does not benefit from memorizing the Quran." This prisoner said that
there have been "Ismailis who receive a reduction of their sentence by one half
for memorizing the Quran, but Ismailis are generally treated worse in prison
than Sunnis."[253]
Another Ismaili we interviewed confirmed that his imprisoned brother had been
unable to benefit for a reduction in his sentence despite having memorized
large parts of the Quran.[254]
The reasons why some Ismailis reportedly benefit from reductions of sentence
and others do not are entirely unclear to Human Rights Watch.

Mu'idh Al Salim, the schoolboy sentenced to death for
insulting the Prophet Muhammad, with sentence later commuted, and finally
pardoned by the king in November 2006 (see above), would actually have been
eligible for release earlier if the benefits associated with memorizing the
Quran had applied: He had memorized the Quran fully, so halving this 14-year
sentence and applying to the remainder a further one-quarter reduction for good
behavior, his release date should have been August 2006.[255]

According to Saudi prison regulations, prisoners also
benefit from conjugal visits and from three days' furlough for deaths and
weddings of close relatives. Here, too, Ismaili prisoners in Najran complain
that, unlike the Sunni prisoners, they do not receive similar benefits.

One former prisoner told Human Rights Watch that the Najran
governorate had directly prohibited his temporary release already agreed by the
prison authorities to see his dying mother and, after her death, to attend her
funeral. This prisoner, who said he had a prison record of good behavior,
recounted with distress how his mother's health grew worse by the day, yet all
pleas to the governor and his deputy fell on deaf ears. On the day after his
mother's death, he said, his relatives went to the governorate

at 11 a.m. and again in the afternoon, then to the mabahith
director to ask for only 6 hours' or 24 hours' furlough. The director asked for
the death certificate and my prisoner's identification. They took a cellphone
number for me and said they'd call the mabahith in Riyadh to seek its opinion.
There was no response. My relatives went back to the governorate, from there to
the prison affairs department, which finally agreed to write a letter stating
that "the prisoner is to be released according to the directions." Then the
prison asked us for a guarantor. We brought one. Then the prison director said
that he would have to seek an explanation of what "according to the directions"
means. This was at 1:30 p.m. on the last day of my mother's three-day wake. The
day passed, and I was still in prison.[256]

This prisoner said that he knew of at least six other
Ismailis who were not granted furlough for the deaths of a mother, father, or
sister.[257]
Another Ismaili said that he has so far been unable to obtain conjugal visits
for his brother, who is in prison.[258]

* * *

Such acts of discrimination increase the feeling of Ismailis
that they are second class citizens in their ancestral region, where they
constitute a large majority. King Abdullah's visit in November 2006 raised
local hopes that Ismailis in Najran would begin to have their concerns heard,
not only in Najran, but also in Riyadh. However, the mabahith on May 13, 2008, arrested Ahmed Al Sa'b who together with six other influential Ismailis had
met King Abdullah in late April and presented him with their grievances,
including a call for Prince Mish'al to resign.[259] His continued
detention sends a clear signal that Riyadh is unwilling to tolerate the
expression of the grievances of the Ismaili community, let alone address them.

Acknowledgments

This report is based on research conducted in Saudi Arabia in December 2006, with additional research based on visits in May 2007 and March 2008,
and in July 2006 in Bahrain. Christoph Wilcke of the Middle East and North
Africa Division of Human Rights Watch is the principal researcher and author of
this report.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to those Saudi Isma'ilis
who mustered the courage to contact us during our visits to the kingdom or who
spoke to us via telephone to share their stories, often at great personal risk.
With few exceptions they expressed fear of government retaliation for speaking
to Human Rights Watch. Prominent Ismaili leaders who spoke out against
discrimination have been or remain in detention. To protect those who shared
information with us, we have substituted pseudonyms for their real names where
appropriate.

Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East and North
Africa Division and Ian Gorvin, senior program officer in the Program Office,
edited the report. Clive Baldwin, senior legal advisor, provided legal review.
Amr Khairy, Arabic language website and

translation coordinator, provided assistance with
translation into Arabic. Brent Giannotta and Nadia Barhoum, associates for the Middle East and North Africa Division, prepared this report for publication. Additional
production assistance was provided by Grace Choi, director of publications, and
Fitzroy Hepkins, mail manager.

Appendix

New York, May 1, 2008

H.R.H. Prince Mish'al bin Sa'ud bin Abd al-'Aziz Al Sa'ud

Governor

Najran Province

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

VIA FACSIMILE: +966 7 522 6080

Your Royal Highness:

Human Rights Watch is preparing a report on the situation of
Isma'ilis in Najran and we wish to seek the governorate's opinion on certain
questions of policy and fact. I regret that during a brief visit to Najran in
December 2006 I was unable to schedule a meeting with you as my visit largely
fell on the weekend.

The questions below ask for many details and some
statistical information. They address areas where Human Rights Watch has
received statements of concern about potential human rights abuses.

In March 2008 we spent one week in Riyadh to discuss with
government officials our reports on four other human rights topics in Saudi Arabia prior to publication. These meetings were very helpful to aid us in
understanding government policy and efforts.

We will endeavor to include any information you can send us
into our report, provided we receive it by May 21, 2008. Should you or your staff prefer to meet in person to discuss these issues we can
aim to come to Najran in the coming weeks.

Questions to the Governor of Najran Province, H.R.H.
Prince Mish'al bin Sa'ud Concerning the Situation of Najran's Isma'ili
Population

We would in general be interested in the government's
estimated numbers of Isma'ilis, Zaidis, Sunnis, and foreign nationals residing
in Najran province.

We would also like to receive examples of a public
statements in which high government officials like yourself have made public
condemnations of religious discrimination or hate speech against a religious
minority, in particular the Isma'ilis of Najran.

Our specific questions are:

Closure of Mosques – Eid al-Fitr 1420

What was the reason for closing Isma'ili mosques during
the Isma'ili Eid al-Fitr in 1420?

How many persons did the security forces arrest that day?

Arrest of Muhammad al-Khayyat – April 23, 2001

What was the official charge and evidence against Muhammad al-Khayyat? Did he stand trial? When was he deported and for what reason?

During the arrest of al-Khayyat, one or more shots were
reportedly fired. Who fired those shots? Was anyone injured?

Did security forces arrest students present with
al-Khayyat at the time? Were they charged? If so, when and with which
offense, and what was the outcome of the trials?

Holiday Inn Events – April 23, 2001

When did you first receive notice that a delegation of
Isma'ili elders wished to see you on April 23, 2001? What form did their request take? Why did you not meet with them?

Were there any communications or negotiations with
Isma'ili representatives outside the Holiday Inn hotel on that day? If
so, what was discussed or promised by both sides?

Your bodyguards reportedly shot and killed an Isma'ili
man just outside the lobby of the Holiday Inn as a group of Isma'ili
representatives sought to meet with you. What did your investigation
determine to be the precise circumstances of this incident?

Who called the special army units to the Holiday Inn, and
when? Who was in overall charge of the security situation at the Holiday
Inn?

Who shot at the Holiday Inn building, and how long did
the attack last? What was the role of the security forces?

How many persons died or were injured that day from
gunfire? What are their names, and did they include security forces? Has
an inquiry established who or which weapon killed those who died? If so,
what is the evidence to support this conclusion?

Aftermath of Holiday Inn Events

How many persons did the security forces arrest in and
around Najran in the days and weeks following the April 23, 2000 shooting outside the Holiday Inn hotel?

How many persons were released within a few days? How
many remained in detention after three months?

What were the precise charges against those who remained
in detention? Please provide copies of the charge sheets and trial
transcripts and verdicts for all those involved.

How many government employees transferred out of the
region between May 2000 and May 2002? How many were Isma'ilis? How many
transferred out of the region between May 1998 and May 2000? What were
the reasons for the transfer of government employees out of Najran during
May 2000 and May 2002? How many government employees resigned before
reaching the retirement age during that period?

Employment

What percentage of the local labor force is employed by
the government?

Please provide the names, positions, and civil service
grades of the 10 highest-ranked Isma'ili officials employed in the
governorate. Please also list the 10 highest-ranked non-Isma'ili
officials.

How many positions (total and percentage) are not subject
to normal civil service competitive examinations within the governorate?
How many Isma'ilis have been appointed in this manner?

Please list the 10 highest-ranked Isma'ili officials in
government departments in Najran. How many department (health, water,
civil defense, education, …) heads or their deputies are Isma'ili?

How many Isma'ilis are in leadership positions (please
specify rank and duties) in Najran in:

i.Traffic Police

ii.Criminal Investigation

iii.Anti-drugs

iv.General Investigations

v.The Border Guards

vi.Mujahidin forces

vii.Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention
of Vice

Please provide the academic and professional
qualifications for non-Isma'ili department heads and their deputies.

Religious Practice

Can Isma'ilis observe all their religious practices,
including public worship and religious teaching? If not, what are the
restrictions and why are they in place?

Is the Isma'ili Da'i or any other Isma'ili
religious figure presently under official restrictions regarding his
movement, the persons he can meet, or the type of activities he can
engage in? If so, what are those restrictions, since how long do they
exist, and why are they in place?

Are Isma'ilis free to import, print, distribute, possess
or otherwise use their own religious books and materials? If not, what
restrictions are in place and why are they in place?

How many applications to build new Isma'ili mosques or
carry out construction on existing ones has the governorate received in
the past 10 years? How many applications were not granted or modified?
What were the reasons for denial or modifications?

How many Sunni mosques have been built in Najran over the
past 10 years? How many state muezzins and imams currently work in
Najran?

How many teachers of subjects of Islamic Affairs in
Najran's state schools (all levels) are Isma'ili?

The Justice system

How many Isma'ilis work in the court system in Najran?
How many of them are judges?

Over the past year, how many prisoners have benefited
from a reduction in their sentenced after having memorized all or part of
the Quran? How many of those prisoners were Isma'ilis? How many Isma'ilis
applied for this reduction but failed the examination?

How many prisoners have been granted furlough for
weddings or funerals / wakes in the past year? Have Isma'ili prisoners
been granted or denied furlough. If denied, why?

How many prisoners have benefited from conjugal visits
over the past year? Have Isma'ili prisoners been granted or denied such
visits. If denied, why?

[1]
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, "Establishment of
National Institutions to Facilitate Implementation of the Convention," General
Recommendation No. 17, A/48/18 (1993),
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/4872085cc3178e3bc12563ee004beb99?Opendocument
(accessed June 24, 2008) .

[4] Ibid., pp. 193-219. Zaidis are a Shia Muslim sect whose leaders
ruled large parts of Yemen for a millennium until 1962.

[5]Most of these allegations against Ismailis
have been disproved. See Farhad Daftary, "Introduction," in Farhad
Daftary, ed., Mediaeval Isma'ili History and Thought (Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 1-18.

[7]
Joseph Tobi, The Jews of Yemen: Studies in Their History and Culture
(Brill: Leiden, Boston, Köln: 1999), p. 22. In October 1949 Najrani Jews left
for Yemen, where Yemeni Jews were preparing to leave to Israel through Aden after Yemen's Imam Ahmed had issued in May 1949 an official permit for them to leave.
Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Israeli academic of Tel Aviv
university (name withheld), June 13, 2008.

[9]
Isam Ghanem, "The Legal History of 'A Sir (Al-Mikhlaf Al-Sulaymani)," Arab
Law Quarterly, vol. 5, no. 3, August 1990, pp. 211-214. Enmity between
Wahhabis, who originated in Saudi Arabia's central Najd region, and the
Ismailis of Najran dates from an Ismaili raid close to Dir'iya, the home town
of the ruling Sa'ud family, in 1764. See George Rentz, "Wahhabism and Saudi Arabia," in Derek Hopwood, ed.,The Arabian Peninsula: Society and Politics (Oxford:
Allen and Unwin, 1972), p. 57.

[10]
Askar Halwan Al-Enazy, "'The International Boundary Treaty' (Treaty of Jeddah)
Concluded between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni Republic on June 12, 2000," The American Journal of International Law, vol. 96, no. 161,
January 2002. King Abd al-'Aziz Al Sa'ud and Imam Yahya Hamid al-Din, Treaty of
Ta'if, May 20, 1934: "His Majesty the Imam Yahya similarly abandons by this
treaty any right he claimed in the name of Yemeni unity or otherwise, in the
country (formerly) in the possession of the Idrisis or the Al-Aidh, or in
Najran, or in the Yam country, which according to this treaty belongs to the
Saudi Arabian Kingdom."

[11]
In 1934 King Abd al-'Aziz bin Sa'ud concluded a covenant with the Yam tribe,
the dominant tribe in Najran, in which he pledged not to interfere in Ismaili
religious affairs and to respect their demographic dominance in Najran by not
promoting either their emigration or the immigration of others. Human Rights
Watch email correspondence with an Ismaili in Najran, August 22, 2007, and Human
Rights Watch interviews with more than six prominent Ismails July 2006 – March
2008. On a visit to the region in November 2006, King Abdullah commented,
"[W]hat a pleasure it is for me on this occasion to call to memory the
historical covenant between his majesty the unifier King Abd al-'Aziz, may God
have mercy on him, and between the protagonists among your grandfathers and
fathers, indeed, as the kingdom was unified through his covenant, you have been
loyal." Ali 'Awn al-Yami and Hamad Al Mansur, "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques: Your State Does Not Differentiate between One Region and Another or between One Citizen
and Another." al-Riyadh, November 1, 2006,
http://www.alriyadh.com/2006/11/01/article198407_s.html (accessed February 29,
2008).

[13]
Nadav Safran, Saudi Arabia. The Ceaseless Quest for Security
(Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1985), p. 54. Safran's date of
1932 for the conquest of Najran differs from others' who put the battle at Aba
Sa'ud at 1933 or 1934. It is possible that there was more than one battle, or
that conversion from hijri into CE dates produced this difference.

[17]
Human Rights Watch interviews with Shia from Qatif, Tarut, Dammam, and
al-Ahsa', IQ1, IT1, ID1, IA1, February and December 2006, and December 2007.

[18]
Human Rights Watch interview with a Shia in Qatif, IQ2, February 2006.

[19]
"I had never really heard of the Ismailis before [Shura Council member] Muhammad Al Zulfa talked to me about their situation." Human Rights Watch interview with former
member of the Shura Council, IR1 Riyadh, December 19, 2006.

[25]
Declaration on Race and Racial Prejudice, E/CN.4/Sub.2/1982/2/Add.1, annex V
(1982). Adopted and proclaimed by the General Conference of the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization at its twentieth session, on
27 November 1978.

[53]
We asked for clarifications in our letter to the governor of Najran, Prince Mish'al (see Appendix), but received no response.

[54]
Email communication from Husain to Karam, September 2, 2001. Human Rights Watch
has a copy of the email and knows the witness, and spoke to Husain in July 2006
when he referred us to his earlier reporting to Al Ahmed on the matter.

[64]
Email communication from a local informant to Amnesty International, June 21,
2000. Human Rights Watch has obtained a copy.

[65]
"Daniel" (pseudonym), "A Summary of Case of Najran and the Suffering of its
People," undated (written around 2002-3), post to web discussion forum on
www.wadi3.com by "Salam li-Najran" ("Peace to Najran"-pseudonym), April 29,
2005,
http://wadi3.com/vb/showthread.php?t=9667&highlight=%CF%C7%E4%ED%C7%E1
(accessed July 12, 2006),."Daniel" was arrested on December 24, 2004. Human
Rights Watch has spoken to "Daniel" and discussed details of the cases he
describes. We have also received from several Ismailis in Najran general
confirmation of all cases in his report that we cite..

[71]
Human Rights Watch interview with Kadhim, Najran, December 14, 2006. Ahmad also
described how in Najran prison at the time he was forced to stand for nine
hours each day, and how an investigator handcuffed him and put his "boot in my
face." Human Rights Watch interview with Ahmad, Najran, December 13, 2006.

[92]
Ali 'Arfiji was the Najran mabahith investigator and prosecutor in the Holiday
Inn case.

[93]
The Expedited, or Summary, Court, is one of two courts of first instance in Saudi Arabia. The Greater, or General, Court, deals with certain crimes and with civil
matters where the amount in dispute is greater than SAR 20,000.

[94]
Human Rights Watch interview with Kadhim, Najran, December 14, 2006. Kadhim's
account of having previously made two different confessions under torture is
given above.

[110]
The National Society for Human Rights was formed in 2004 as a government
initiative by members of the appointed Shura Council. King Fahd gave the
Society SAR 100 million and real estate from his personal wealth. The Society
has grown increasingly vociferous and critical over the past years. The Human
Rights Commission, in existence since 2005, is a government body that visits
prisons, and conveys concerns and individual complaints to concerned government
ministries privately.

[117]
Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Husain, Najran, July 6, 2006. Ali
Al Ahmed is a Saudi Shia from the Eastern Province who fled to the US where he received asylum in 1999. His organization, the Gulf Institute, regularly
criticizes Saudi policies and practices.

[118]
James M. Dorsey, "Saudi Tribe Sees the War as a Chance to Win Some Rights –
Aggrieved Shiites Hope Scrutiny of Monarchy Will Help Their Struggle," The
Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2002.

[120]
King Khalid Hospital Director Dr. Muhammad bin Salim al-Saqur, "Letter to the
Director of the Branch of General Prisons in Najran" containing the Medical Report for Ahmad Turki Al Sa'b, July 13, 2002. The examination took place on July 3,
2002.

[125]
Email communication from Ismaili living in the Eastern Province, IEP1, to Human
Rights Watch, July 14, 2006.

[126]
Human Rights Watch telephone interview with an Ismaili, Najran, IN1, February
12, 2008. He said that it was a verbal undertaking given to the head of the
al-Saq tribe.

[127]
The Sudairy family is extremely close to the Al Sa'ud. King Abd al-Aziz took
several wives from the Sudairys. The sons of one of these marriages hold senior
government positions.

[128]
Human Rights Watch is in possession of numerous documents detailing the
naturalization of these Yemeni refugees and governmental service provision for
them. We are, however, unable to assess the procedural irregularity Ismailis
claim occurred in granting citizenship, and, while we were able to verify the
governmental provision of housing and services to these Yemenis, we were unable
to determine conclusively that these Yemenis received preferential treatment
not based on need.

[130]
"The Permanent Committee for Religious Research and Opinion Issues an
Explanatory Statement: Calling 'Ubaid's State 'Fatimid' Is False and Forged", Al-Riyadh,
April 9, 2007, http://www.alriyadh.com/2007/04/09/article240297.html (accessed
January 17, 2008).

[132]
Complaint by 66 Ismailis from Najran to Shaikh Turki al-Sudairy, Chairman of
the Human Rights Commission, April 24, 2007, and Human Rights Watch interview
with two Ismailis, IR2, IR3 Riyadh, May 20 and 22, 2007.

[133]
Human Rights Watch telephone interview with an Ismaili present at al-Luhaidan's
lecture in the Holy Mosque on August 21, 2006, IEP1, Eastern Province, February 2007.

[134]
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Sixty-second session,
Summary Record of the 1558th Meeting, March 5, 2003, CERD/C/SR.1558, March 10, 2003.

[135]
Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Ismaili teacher, IN4, Najran, April
29, 2008. The "deviant" sects were the Sabaiya, the Batiniya, the Khawarij, and
the Ismailis.

[136]King Abdullah to the Citizens: I Pledge that I Take the
Quran as a Constitution and Islam as an Approach. My Job is to Realize Right,
Establish Justice and Serve the Citizens Without Differentiation. Speech on the
occasion of acceding to the throne, Ash-Shura Magazine (vol.7, no. 70),

[137]
Muhammad al-Ghanim, Bandar al-Nasir, and Muhammad al-Shishani, "King Abdullah:
You Have the Right to Expect Me to Beat the Pests of Tyranny and Oppression
with Justice", Al-Riaydh, April 15, 2007, http://www.alriyadh.com/2007/04/15/article242026.html
(accessed February 12, 2008).

[145]
"On the other hand an official source of the Ministry of Interior said today
that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz has
pardoned a number of those convicted in Najran incidents and those sentenced to
serve terms in prison of the remaining periods of their verdicts and ordered
their release, except those who were convicted to be killed for carrying arms,
reducing their convicts to life imprisonment." Ain al-Yaqeen (official
news website), November 3, 2006,
http://www.ain-al-yaqeen.com/issues/20061103/feat1en.htm (accessed May 17, 2008).

[151]
"Instruction from 'Interior' to Respect Ismaili School of Thought and the
Special Characteristics of Its Supporters". Al-Rasid News Network,
November 7, 2007, http://www.rasid.com/artc.php?id=19051 (accessed November 9,
2007).

[153]
Email communication from an Ismaili in Najran, IN7, to Human Rights Watch,
February 1, 2008. This was unlike the municipal council in mixed Shia and Sunni
al-Ahsa', in the Eastern Province, where the government appointed Sunnis to
balance the elected Shia.

[158]
A relative of his, Shaikh Abu Saq, concluded the agreement with King Abd
al-'Aziz in the 1930s joining Najran to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and giving
assurances of religious autonomy to the Ismailis.

[159]
Human Rights Watch had numerous discussions on this matter with the two
prominent Ismailis who did not gain a position on the board, as well as with
other staff and board members of the Human Rights Commission from 2006-2007.

[160]
The government in mid-2008 removed this judge. Human Rights Watch telephone
interview with IR4, Riyadh, August 26, 2008.

[198]
Ibid. Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Jalal, Najran, July 6, 2006.
Article 10.1.d. of the Executive Regulation of the Civil Service Law stipulates
that "the candidate for promotion should have completed at least four years in
the rank he works in, and the promotion of an employee who has worked in the
rank for a period not less than two years is permissible if he has successfully
completed a special training program of no less than one year duration." Law of
the Civil Service, Umm al-Qura Gazette No. 26682, July 2, 1977.

In a telephone interview from Najran with Human Rights
Watch, May 1, 2008, another Ismaili, IN1, told Human Rights Watch that
promotions normally occur every two years.

[199]
Human Rights Watch tour of the region to these facilities and interview with
Ismaili from Najran , IN9, December 15, 2006.